#phantom smells

not really! actually so many different conditions can result in olfactory hallucinations like nasal infections or other neurological disorders like migraines, head injury, stroke, parkinsons disease, seizures, brain tumor, and of course psychotic disorders.

though most things online say every type of hallucination besides auditory in psychosis is "rare", i dont really believe that from my own experience and what ive heard other psychotics describe.

im guessing its not talked about a lot cause its kinda hard to prove, especially if you live in a city or apartment building like i do, like if i smell something funky i almost always assume its one of my neighbors cooking up or burning something.

Ever since I can remember I would randomly smell different scents- scents that were no where near me let alone in the same place as me. I never looked up anything like this until recently and the most popular thing I saw was something called “Phantom Smell”. However, people with Phantom Smell say they smell something burning like toast or a chemical like smell, something always bad it seemed. I have bad allergies and have been on allergy medicine since I can remember as well and as I grew older and developed depression the smells come more frequently I feel. When I was younger I would only smell something here and there, have a long few year break, then start smelling something again.

The smells I most commonly smelled was freshly dug dirt or specifically Lipsmackers Watermelon chapstick. Now that I’m older I have been smelling freshly cut watermelon, flat soda pops, fresh cut onions, and other smells that seem nostalgic to me but I can’t quite place. These smells have always only lasted a second or two but they would be strong or very mild. Enough for me to register what they were and then they vanish.

I have a very great and close best friend of ten years and I have always expressed to them when I would randomly smell something. I was getting ready to leave their house a few years back when I randomly smelled orange soda pop. They, however, did not have orange soda pop in their home. I received a text a few hours later from my friend saying the party they were attending had orange soda pop.

The same friend has gone on vacation twice this year and both times I smelled freshly cut juicy watermelon. These scents can get so powerful I swear it’s like visualizing the item into existence just by the smell. And each time I texted them and told them what I had smelled they came back each time with the answer of they had watermelon in their possessions each time.

Me, trying to figure out where the smell of hash browns is coming from at 11 P.M. :