Strong / Unpleasant Smells / Vomiting

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rabbitears
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26 Jan 2011, 7:21 pm

From when I was a baby until I was a toddler, whenever my parents would take me out anywhere for a meal, if I could smell food being fried (McDonalds usually being the worst culprit), I would usually be physically sick (everywhere.) This took it's toll through the first 3 or 4 years of my life, and by the time I was about 5 years old, the acid in my vomit had almost completely eroded the enamel on my teeth, leaving me with little crumbly orangey-brown gnashers (thankfully, after some extensive dental work and the emergence of new adult teeth at around the age of 8, my teeth are now in pretty good condition.)
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem and if if you think it was an early indication of sensory problems related to an ASD?


P.S. - It's not so bad these days, I still can't handle any unpleasant smells (although I don't vomit now) but if I like a smell I can sniff it all the time without any ill effects.



Last edited by rabbitears on 27 Jan 2011, 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lostonearth35
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26 Jan 2011, 7:32 pm

Well, I never had THAT problem, thank goodness!! ! 8O



Jonsi
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26 Jan 2011, 8:55 pm

If I smell something strong and gross, I will a) faint or b) have an intense migraine the rest of the day. I can usually resist the fainting, but I will get the migraine if I do. I usually choose the fainting. There's a chance I won't get the migraine if I allow the fainting.

It's happening a lot less though, thankfully.



rabbitears
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27 Jan 2011, 6:29 am

Yeah, I also sometimes get headaches if it's a bad smell, I forgot to mention that. Luckily I've never fainted through smells though.



Fiz
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27 Jan 2011, 8:13 am

I have been known to have an extreme reaction like vomiting to certain smells (it is usually the smell of someone else's vomit if it is particularly concentrated) as I have a strong sense of smell, but it is very rare. I have never had it to the same degree or frequency though and have never fainted because of a bad smell. Otherwise, if a smell repulses me, I simply try to remove myself from whatever the smell is without any ill effects like vomiting.


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the_curmudge
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27 Jan 2011, 1:56 pm

Aerosol air fresheners, fragrance oils, scented skin creams and cosmetics and scented detergents cause symptoms ranging from a tickling in the nose to a tickling in the throat to actual gagging, but so far, never vomiting. I am bothered far more frequently than I used to be; it may be that more things are (cheaply) scented.



Puppygnu
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27 Jan 2011, 9:24 pm

Last night my seven year old autistic son became sick. I was sleeping with my mouth open. My son woke me up by vomiting on my mouth, face, and chest. The vomit did not taste as bad as it smelled. It really did not smell that bad. (Maybe my lack of care about vomit is an NT problem.)

I teased my wife after she vomited all over the carpet. I started picking up chunks with my hand and deliberately misidentified the food. I accused her of cheating on her diet. She could not stop laughing even though she was very sick.



auntblabby
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28 Jan 2011, 6:43 am

the smell of strong cologne and perfume makes me sneeze my head off much of the time, and when it doesn't do that, then it totally clogs my nose. thankfully nothing was bad enough smelling of itself to make me vomit. i knew a poor unfortunate housekeeper at the hospital i used to work in, that on one day, she had to clean up a nasty operating room with blood and urine and feces on the floor, and she vomited all over the floor in there from the stench. she went to the bathroom to change and clean up, and when she came back to try again to clean the stinky OR she vomited all over again, so they had to get another housekeeper to clean the mess up. that was the closest i came to vomiting myself due to the overwhelmingly noxious odor of warm fresh vomit together with the other nasties. the smell was so bad that i could taste it as i was mouth-breathing.



Amik
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29 Jan 2011, 1:52 pm

Some smells make me nauseous, but I don't usually vomit because of them.

The smells of tobacco smoke, coffee or beer for example make me nauseous. If a neighbour across the street is smoking outside his house, I smell it all the way into my home and feel really nauseous. The same applies when I come to work and all my colleagues are sipping on their morning coffee. I feel like vomiting, but never actually vomit.

Those smells have made me nauseous for as long as I remember. I remember getting up early as a kid to eat breakfast and be back inside my room before my parents would wake up and switch on the coffee maker.

When I was 6 we got some mouthwash at school and all the students were supposed to use it and it was supposed to be a weekly thing. I found the smell of the mouthwash really disgusting and nauseating and tried to get out of washing my mouth with it, but the teacher eventually forced me to. After I had washed my mouth I felt even more nauseous and vomited all over the place. After that my teacher agreed to let me skip it. I'm not sure if it was the smell or the taste or both that made me vomit, but this is the only time I remember vomiting from sensory issues.



floating
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30 Jan 2011, 7:00 pm

I also have this problem. It's mostly settled down now - but there was a time when it was particularly problematic and regular. It took me a while to work out that it was the smell of frying certain spices that was causing me to vomit all the time.



eudaimonia
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30 Jan 2011, 7:40 pm

I have not gotten to the point of vomiting from a strong smell, though I am affected strongly by scent. Scent is said to be the strongest sensual tie to emotions/memories, as it really gets in you.

I have done cleaning work in the past and currently work around dead folks. I have had to desensitize to some very strong smells and it has definitely been difficult. I can now cope with the smell of a decomposed body (sorry for the gruesome mental image, anyone) but am still irritated by chemical smells or strong, unnatural odors. Stuff like bleach, ammonia, formaldehyde.. that stuff was just NOT meant to be smelt by our noses!

I have been affected by emotion to the point of vomiting, however. First when I heard my best friend's brother (also a close friend) had died unexpectedly, I went straight to the bathroom and puked. More recently, when I was in a bad relationship and living with a large group of friends who I were finding to be more and more negative or thoughtless, I was anxious to the point of vomiting a few times.



markko
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30 Jan 2011, 10:21 pm

I'm a nurse. Vomit doesn't bother me. All the sound of wretching does is make my pissy because it usually means my work plan gets screwed up assessing and caring for a puker.

You wanna get me nauseated, just uncork a colostomy.



SusannahG
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31 Jan 2011, 1:33 pm

I have a big problem with food smells, I can smell what someone had for lunch across the other-side of the room and it drives me nuts. It's one of the reasons I can't stand hugging or kissing (that and an intense feeling of claustrophobia).

My son is just the same too.