Please share sensory smell issues.

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And I'll be happy to start out. I remember being in fifth grade (age 11) and this not very good teacher who seemed to have an anger problem used a lot of can of bug killer just to kill one poor little spider. And I remember I didn't want to swallow my saliva. I tried to hold my saliva until we had a break and then I might be able to spit it out. I seemingly could taste the bug spray so vividly, I felt sure that there must be some poison in my mouth. Well, there was some poison just from breathing in the spray, but probably not that much unless this was going to be on a regular basis. Finally, I just had to swallow the saliva. And needless to say, yes, this was a major distraction during that class.

I ask you to perhaps share your own story with sensory smell issues.

normally i have a very Hypo sensitive sense of smell, but for things i dont like, its over powering. like artifially scented flowers, make me cough and sneeze, purfume drives me nuts, the smell of sliva makes me want to puke. but smell is where the least amount of my sensory issues.

Most artificial scents, especially perfume. I just can't handle being around the stuff. I have no idea why people like it.

Same thing with bug spray.Ive asked people to please not spray it,I'd rather there be a bug than get a whiff of that stuff.Any chemical smell makes me feel nauseous.Really strong perfume odors but there are some milder scents that are ok.But not White Diamonds,someone gave that to me as a present and I thew it away.Deisel exhaust,nausea and a sinking feeling.
I like dogs,but not the way some smell.Im glad mine is not stinky.Cheap incense,I like the Japanese joss sticks,they smell good and don't make my nose burn.The smell of ink from the mimeograph in grade school.The way pennies and other change makes my hand smell.Cat urine in litter boxes that need changing.

The smell of newspaper ink is so strong to me I can taste it and it makes my mouth dry.

Any kind of artificial/chemical smell is bad to me. Some spray cleaners make me feel like I can't breathe, my chest gets tight and I start wheezing. Perfumes, scented candles and artificially scented soaps make my eyes and throat burn. Incense is the worst of all because the smell is not only offensive, it is dusty and the dust lingers for a long time in a place where people burn it.

My dad used to go around spraying pesticides in the house. I can still smell pesticide for years after it has been sprayed in a certain place. It seems like it never goes away.

I used to do the same thing and spit my saliva out if anyone was spraying something. I thought everyone had that issue *edit* but realized at some point most do not. I do know I have sensory issues though. Today for example all I could smell all morning at work was salt and vinegar chips. I walked around the office trying to find someone eating them so i could verify my smell. Unfortunately I couldn't and some time after that I smelt the dirt smell that I smell with coffee. Once again I walked around to see if anyone was drinking coffee and no one was (I sit alone in my cubical area with no one around me for the most part). At that point I IMed the one lady I eat lunch with (We have an amazing let me ramble about things and she pretends to listen relationship) and told her if she comes to get me at 12 and I'm drooling and incoherent to please put some aspirin in my mouth and drag me down to the VA so I can be treated for a stroke. She thought I was being funny, I was not.

Smell doesn't bother me really, but I can't stand ciggarette smoke, or fish smell.

I often do this, too. Somehow, locating the smell makes the whole thing more understandable and less chaotic.

PS I'm glad you're comfortable sharing basic first aid about stroke.

I have quite a few smell issues; one of the reasons I'm such a picky eater is because everything smells so gross. I can't stand the smell of things like fish, cooking green vegetables, many soups and stews, they all just smell utterly inedible. I also have asthma so I have a problem with cigarette smoke and strong perfumes, but even the smell of stale cigarettes on the clothes of a smoker makes me nauseous, as do things like burning incense, which also gives me a headache, unclean humans at too close a proximity, especially if they're sweaty, and certain brands of laundry detergent. My mother buys scented dryer sheets to make the laundry smell better, but in their concentrated state, they are sickening. I can barely tolerate going down the soap/detergent and perfume aisles in stores because the mixed smells are so overpowering; the frozen meat section is pretty bad too, especially where they keep the fish. I can smell scented candles burning from the next room, and certain "heavy" smells like the vanilla or honey give me a headache in much the same way that incense does. I always hate taking out the trash, or even peeling vegetables over it because it reeks awfully, and I have never understood how no one else in my family is bothered by it. Public bathrooms can be particularly bad because the combination of human waste mixing with extremely pungent flowery air freshener is nauseating. It's a little depressing to note that smell is in fact one of my milder sensory issues.

I have am very olfactory - some I enjoy greatly and some I can't stand. My senses overlap, upon hearing things I both taste and smell and I also get the reverse effect (taste and smell can cause me to hear things) so I have to be vary careful.

The worst are really strong or bad associations. Any burning or poisons of course. Major chemicals are bad.

But I love pleasant smells and really enjoy them, many foods and I love flowers (real ones) and being outdoors, fresh cut grass or hay, most farm smells (not real strong ones though, clean places), - and this one is weird people I care about (I am visually impaired so while younger before I got my glasses I recognized people by voice and smell).

I don't like the smell of hot dogs and sausages cooking. There are probably other smells I'm not thinking of at the moment, too.

Sometimes when I am out people's perfumes bother me but that is probably quite common. I am not bothered by many smells. I am more bothered by certain sounds such as electrical equipment buzzing. That I have to make stop or I can't focus on anything else.

There are lots of cooking smells I can't tolerate, pretty much anything I don't like to eat (which is too long a list to name them all) but most noteworthy are things like chili, stew, roast beef. Those also look so disgusting to me I don't understand how anyone can eat them. I also can't stand the smell of raw beef.

Even some things that I like to eat, if they are prepared in a bad way the smell is overpoweringly nauseating. For instance I love fried chicken but some places that cook fried chicken smell absolutely disgusting.

Body odor can also be nauseating. Like when I go in health food stores I am holding my breath because a lot of the people who work or shop there don't bathe much.

I think I've mentioned this here before too but I can't stand the smell of most breads, especially white sliced bread, or things like hot dog and hamburger buns. It really turns my stomach to smell that type of overprocessed white bread. When I find bread that I like, that smells appealing to me, I get excited because I do like to eat bread, it's just so rare to find any that I really like.

Also I can't stand the smell of fabric softener. Especially Downy Unstopables which I think is pure evil.

I see perfume is a common one. Strangely, I don't seem to have many problems with aftershaves, but some perfumes can be almost as distressing for me as noise.

Other problems:
Red Bull. That smells foul.
Some flowers. The other day I thought someone in my family must have terrible BO when we were eating. It turned out it was just the flowers in the table.

Recently I wonder if having no sense of smell can be related to AS.

I have no sense of smell at all, but I have other sensory issues.

I do not like the smell of onions or burnt food because of how strong they smell. I also cannot stand the smell of paint (canned or aerosol) because the strong smell gives me headaches. Another smell I have issues with is cigarette smoke (or any kind of smoke for that matter), because of how unhealthy it can be.