[x123]

A year or two ago, I started becoming extremely sensitive to smells. I keep smelling things that nobody else can smell, and people think I'm weird. It's frustrating because my nose is at the mercy of everybody else. I can smell their shampoo. I can smell when they open an energy drink. I can smell if they eat a sandwich. And the smells are overpowering and upsetting to me - especially when other people can't smell what I smell. Sometimes I smell things that are in another room.

I have other problems like depression, low energy, low libido, etc. It never occurred to me that my sense of smell might be a clue. However, apparently people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) sometimes have a heightened sense of smell. Originally I thought my sense of smell was a souvenir from being psychotic and delusional, but it is actually more recent than that.

Which sub-forum discusses CFS? Or maybe CFS is not the best guess for what I have?

[LiteraryLark]

People who aren't mentally ill are sensitive to smells. There can be many reasons for it.

For example, my grandmother gave me the okay to smoke my E-cig in their house, but when I came up last week, my Papa had my grandmother tell me that the smell made him nauseous even when it did not bother my grandma at all.

My mom is also hypersensitive to smell. She gets all P.O'd after I smoke cigarettes (I smoke both, trying to quit cigs) and she will febreeze the entire house.

Personally, when I quit smoking, I could smell so many things I couldn't smell before.

So who knows why you are sensitive smells, but it may have nothing to do with mental illness. Some people are more aware than others.

[x123]

Originally Posted by LiteraryLark

People who aren't mentally ill are sensitive to smells. There can be many reasons for it.

For example, my grandmother gave me the okay to smoke my E-cig in their house, but when I came up last week, my Papa had my grandmother tell me that the smell made him nauseous even when it did not bother my grandma at all.

My mom is also hypersensitive to smell. She gets all P.O'd after I smoke cigarettes (I smoke both, trying to quit cigs) and she will febreeze the entire house.

Personally, when I quit smoking, I could smell so many things I couldn't smell before.

So who knows why you are sensitive smells, but it may have nothing to do with mental illness. Some people are more aware than others.

Thanks, @LiteraryLark . Previously, I thought this was leftover from being psychotic in 2009, but then I realized that it wasn't a problem until the last year or two. Last summer, I started being tired all the time and having food intolerances to things that I was able to eat before. I believe the sensitivity to smell began before the tiredness, but I can't remember for certain. I am seeing my therapist today, so I will see what she thinks about CFS. Last time, she said she thought I was burned-out and needed to take breaks from work. I work in a family business that is struggling. I keep working harder and harder, but the piles on my desk keep getting taller and scarier. If it wasn't a family business, I would close it down and get a job that worries me less. The smell thing is embarrassing, because the people that work with me think I am weird. I have told them that perfumes and deodorants bother me, and then I feel like people are spraying perfume all over the place to upset me. Yesterday, I discovered it was only an energy drink that somebody was drinking.

[eastofeden]

I don't know about smells by I am hypersensitive to sound -- it's like I have supersonic hearing. I hate it. Every noise annoys me and I can hear things others can't hear pretty easily -- I'll hear music in a car that's a mile away. I'm especially sensitive to thumping noises (like bass/drums in music). My pdoc said that such a sensitivity can go along with bipolar. Not sure that translates to smell, though?

[avlady]

i have a heightened sense of smell too. i've sniffed out 3 differrent fires when the department had to get there just in time. they were not in my own apartment. i was wondering if the meds i'm on also help smell because i also hate alot of other smells. good luck and don't sniff glue-just kidding!!

[x123]

Thanks, everybody, for the replies

I'm just wondering abour your other senses. When one sense isn't a 100%, another will become stronger to compensate.