But I actually wish they’d comment more – it’s interesting and helpful to know what I can’t sense for myself. People are also forever apologising to me for commenting on smells they notice – “what are you eating, that smells nice, oh sorry”. Our language is steeped in metaphors relating to our senses, from “I see what you mean” to “that idea stinks”, that’s fine, don’t try to tip-toe around them, I use smelly metaphors too. If there’s any silver lining from Covid (which feels a callous calculation when millions have died), then I hope we do at least see more medical research, and eventually treatments, for anosmia. I remember thinking “I’ve already told you I can’t smell, are you not listening?” That ended with a inhaler prescription to “unblock my nose”, and when that didn’t work just a medical shrug and a “be on your way”. My main memory of the consultation as a child (I was about 6 when it occurred to me I couldn’t smell) was the doctor holding up different vials and asking “how about this, can you smell this?” which really puzzled me. It has largely ignored anosmia, there is a miniscule amount of research done, and very little understanding. And it tends to take a lot of explanation, until 2020 the very concept was hard for most people to grasp, there is always a lot of “but how about X, surely you can smell that?” And to be fair, even the medical profession is little better. I’d had anosmia for decades before I even came across a name for the condition, and Microsoft Word still doesn’t even recognise the word anosmic.Įven today, when someone I don’t know well holds something out and says “smell this” (you’d be surprised how often this happens!) I’ll often mime along just to avoid the awkwardness of explaining. Until Covid, no-one had heard of anosmia, it has been utterly hidden. At school I’d laugh along with jokes about farts, because it was easier than trying to explain. I’m more open about it now, but for many years I didn’t talk about it at all. If you’re eating with anosmia, it pays to really get to understand taste in its own right, and I’ll talk about food a bit later. For example many struggle to differentiate between sour and bitter. I’ve always found it fascinating how little people understand their own sense of taste, because it’s so buried under the experience of smell. They’re actually the smell of something that only tastes sweet/sour in the case of a banana, or frankly almost nothing at all in the case of fish. Some quite distinctive “tastes” like, say banana or fish, really don’t exist. Take that away, and you’re left with basic tastes such as sweet/sour/salt/bitter. Most people struggle to distinguish between taste and smell, so much of the “flavour” of food is actually the smell that reaches you via the choanae, the “back door” to the nose. Some people with Covid-19 also suffer ageusia – loss of taste – but this is difference to how anosmia itself affects taste. To understand anosmia it’s worth understanding first how intertwined smell is with taste. A warning perhaps for anyone who thinks they needn’t bother with the Covid vaccine because they’re young and healthy. Life-long anosmia, though, is less common and in my case may have been caused by catching measles as baby, long before the MMR vaccine was available. I was left genuinely speechless when my children were able to say instantly which of their friends had left gloves at our house, just with one quick sniff – it was like discovering everyone else had psychic powers they’d not bothered to mention before.įor something so little understood, anosmia is surprisingly common, either temporary or permanent – it can be caused by obstruction (polyps), injury, or just old age. Even now I still learn surprising new things about smell. I’ve never even known what it’s like to smell, but to have had it then lose it will feel profoundly different, let alone those experiencing paranosmia where things smell different. Of course everyone’s experience is different. I’ve been completely anosmic all my life – this post is a personal reflection on my own experience, in the hope it may be of interest to those newly experiencing it. February 27 th every year is Anosmia Awareness Day, but Covid means this year is different and anosmia (loss of smell) is suddenly big news.
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