As a person with anosmia, I get a lot of strange questions. But the above question, “Has anyone smelled your Tylenol lately?” has got to be one of the strangest questions I’ve gotten, especially considering a coworker of mine asked it as I was leaving the office the other day…
If you are looking for a very basic article discussing the function of smell and taste, the American Academy of Otolaryngology (another word unrecognizable by my spell-checker) has a simple article on the subject answering some basic questions such as…
I don’t get this question a lot, but it is a topic that usually some of my more daring friends eventually ask. And the answer is…
Don’t ask me how this question popped into my head, but it did. Now, I know I couldn’t smell in space no matter what the conditions (being a congenital anosmic and all). But is it possible for someone (in...
Olfie is a term that I picked up from the Congenital Anosmia Forums. I have no idea who coined the term or when it came into use by fellow anosmics, but “Olfie” refers to a person whose olfaction (a.k.a the ability to smell; one’s sense of smell) remains untrammeled. In other words, an olfie is someone who can smell everything just fine. The term is used to distinguish myself (an anosmic; someone who cannot smell) from other more “regular” or “normal” people (people who can smell)…
Since I often tell people about how my taste can be affected by the texture of food, I sometimes get the question of how color impacts food’s appeal. And I can honestly say that…
After telling someone that I can’t smell, sometimes I’m asked how I happened to lose my sense of smell. Usually, the people who ask this question know someone, like a grandmother or aunt, who have lost their sense of smell. But as far as I can remember, I’ve never been able to smell. So losing it (like…oops…where did it go?!) isn’t really a question that applies to me….
I get this question a lot, and the answer, surprisingly enough is…I’m not sure…maybe. I don’t know if the sensation I’m feeling is a “smell” or simply a change in temperature or just the chemical eating away at my inner nostrils, but bleach is one odor that I can detect. That is, in very high and from what I’m told “dangerous” quantities…
Heather Ackmann was born without a sense of smell (congenital anosmia) and constantly finds herself explaining all kinds of strange things to strangers, like eating habits, whether she uses deodorant, and whether she can "smell this." She built this website for the curious who are afraid to ask, and for the afflicted who love to share. You can read more about me here