Sense of smell during manic/hypomanic event

Often, my sense of smell becomes heightened right before I have a manic/hypomanic episode. Does anyone else experience this connection, or have similar stories of links between senses (visual, auditory, etc) and mood?

Though I have heightened awareness of smell most of the time, there are also occasions where I become extremely photosensitive, or sounds seem louder than they actually are.

Just wondering if anyone else out there has a similar experience.

Hmmm, I become very irritable so I am extra sensitive all around. Every sound, sight, smell, feel, etc is exaggerated. I live with my father & can not even stand the sound of him breathing - in another room. I have to keep some noise & distractions going at all time, either watching movies or playing music while online. I don't know if my senses are actually heightened, or if I am just that much more keyed up by what is going on around me.

OMG!! I thought I the only one with the smell thing. For the past 2 wks or so I'm convinced I smell car fumes in my bedroom & only my bedroom, husband doesn't smell anything...
Ears ringing/screaming, tried nose spray hoping it is allergies, so annoying.
Photosensitive, noise & hypervigelance are my normal.
Have only slept around 3 hrs in almost 3 days. Can't concentrate.

Ok, whine over.

I do the smell weird things too! Not car fumes, but other random things no one else can smell. I also taste weird things like that. I tend to taste soap & dirt, & smell grass & meth. I chalk them up to hallucinations.

I have the ears ringing, but it is sinus related tinnitus. I also hear a phantom radio station, but I somewhere recently stumbled upon something called Musical Ear Syndrome where people do think they hear a radio, dj chatter, commercials, music changes, the whole nine yards. It is related to hearing loss & tinnitus. Phew! I was so afraid I was having some major auditory hallucinations or that someone had actually hidden a radio inside my walls to drive me crazy.

I've noticed that I sometimes have a greater appreciation for visual and auditory sensations while hypomanic. Music sounds so good; ordinary scenes are beautiful pieces of art.

I've had olfactory hallucinations as well. Usually I smell something burning, but one day I smelled french fries everywhere I went. Bipolar is a weird disorder.

My senses, all of them, are heightened during a hypomanic and manic episode and hyperaware. Sometimes to the point it becomes annoying and makes me more irritable, as it is sensory overload. Already sensitive so for it to become more so... arghhh!

Okay, I feel better now. I've had the french fry smell thing and I can never find the place where they are coming from. Out in the middle of nowhere, and I smell french fries! So glad to know I'm not alone on this one.

Manic, in general, you have a more sensitive system to smells and sounds, and for me, it's colors. Everything looks newly painted, brightly colored, etc. It's one way I know I'm going up is when I suddenly start thinking things have been repainted.

me. Sounds especially, though sometimes I feel I can smell things from blocks away like once I thought I smelled burnt toast for blocks.

I'm sensitive with all of my senses. I feel like things are more colorful, smell better...etc. when I'm in a manic episode. Most of the time, anyway.

Glad I'm not the one one.

Yup. Especially sensitive to plant smells and perfumes. My wife and I like to take occasional walks in the evenings to unwind from the day and get some time together without distractions. When an episode is coming on, I find certain trees and plants overpowering to the point that I want to gag. My wife has difficulty identifying what smell is so repulsive to me.
The smell of good coffee, freshly roasted and freshly ground can put me into a giddy state of ecstasy, while stale coffee (say beans roasted 3 weeks before) can be undrinkable. The characteristics of each coffee take on very distinguishable markers for me at such times. But if I'm not in an episode, I often can't distinguish easily between the tastes of some coffees.

Sound sensitivity is a permanent issue for me. Since 20 months ago when I had 3 weeks of Prozac, I have had trouble with low tolerance for sudden sounds and general ambient noise. Some days are worse than others, but it is always there. It seems to tie up with a sensory gating deficit that many bipolar and schizophrenic people have.

Light sensitivity - seems to have more to do with how well I slept the night before than with any particular mood state. When I was on St John's wort I was very sensitive to bright light, including skin sensitivity to sunburn.

Sensitivity to touch. I haven't tied it to any mood state, but sometimes I can't stand being touched, and at other times it feels good. Probably has a lot to do with irritability.

Probably. From reading these posts, I'm like "yeah, I sometimes get the smell of french fries!" haha. I'll be somewhere where the're isn't even a restaurant anywhere close, and get food smells. Someone said something about colors, and I get that too.. they seem brighter and newer.

I totally understand! Mine is different, though. Colors are brighter for me. And, I think I can hear music better. I start to listen to one song after another for hours....

I used to think I somehow accidentally ingested mushrooms!

Thank you for your responses. I asked my pdoc about this once, but she hadn't heard any of her other BP II patients report this symptom. Now I know I'm not alone.

I've had very similar experiences.

Ooooh, I get this a lot! Never realized it was part of being hypomanic though... but it makes so much sense to me.

ROTFLMAO
That's probably because these symptoms aren't usually considered dangerous, and they didn't want to make DSM-IV any fatter with descriptions that only the "patient" relates to.

But when I dived under my pdoc's table in reaction to a loud pneumatic drill outside, she was alarmed enough to take it seriously and have me hospitalised LOL.

There is plenty of literature dealing with sensory changes in people with bipolar - and not just anecdotal stuff.

Edit: "hadn't heard any of her other BP II patients report this symptom" - Sorry. I got carried away. I guess not everyone with bipolar experiences sensory changes, but it seems to be quite prevalent.
There is some interesting research that has been done on Sensory Gating deficits in schizophrenia sufferers and some research has found there is some overlap with a sub group of bipolar sufferers.

Oh you lucky dogs with the french fries!
You know what smell I smell? Rotten chicken. Good times.
TG it doesn't happen all that often. I've not been able to ascertain a correlation with mood state, but there's not a lot of data to work with (not complaining, because really, it's seriously gross!)
As far as the whole heightened senses thing, yes.