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kat_ross
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11 Nov 2010, 10:35 pm

For the last few months I have been experiencing a very bad smell on the third floor of my house. I smell it in the evenings, a couple of times a week, and it lasts for about 4-5 hours. At first I thought my neighbors were cooking something with a very strong/overpowering spice, but now I am not so sure that it is food, because it isn't appetizing at all. It is very hard to describe. And, the couple of times that I have asked my parents to come up to the attic to see of they smell it, they haven't been able to smell anything!

It is so strong to me, that it makes me nauseous and even makes my throat burn sometimes. Is it possible that I just have a more sensitive sense of smell than everyone else in my family?

Also, I have heard that some people are able to smell certain types of mold more easily than others. My only other idea is that perhaps one of the closets up here has mold or something, although I can't see anything that looks like mold anywhere. This has become very annoying, because the attic is my safe haven from all other sensory triggers, and now I can't even breathe through my nose when i'm up there!

Has anyone else here ever been able to smell something that no one else could? Or am i really nuts?



Titangeek
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11 Nov 2010, 11:04 pm

i was going to say that maybe you have some sort of rodent and what you where smelling was this rodent when it was nearby but if your parents cant smell it when you can then i have clue.


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flamingshorts
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11 Nov 2010, 11:12 pm

I hoped this was about a new superhero called Phantom Smell.
Can you imagine his power. 8O



Titangeek
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11 Nov 2010, 11:14 pm

flamingshorts wrote:
I hoped this was about a new superhero called Phantom Smell.
Can you imagine his power. 8O

lol :lol:


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j0sh
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11 Nov 2010, 11:19 pm

Maybe it's a ghost-fart. I was something about them on... the History Channel. :roll:

I'm just kidding, or course.



Aspieallien
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12 Nov 2010, 12:33 am

kat_ross wrote:
For the last few months I have been experiencing a very bad smell on the third floor of my house. I smell it in the evenings, a couple of times a week, and it lasts for about 4-5 hours. At first I thought my neighbors were cooking something with a very strong/overpowering spice, but now I am not so sure that it is food, because it isn't appetizing at all. It is very hard to describe. And, the couple of times that I have asked my parents to come up to the attic to see of they smell it, they haven't been able to smell anything!

It is so strong to me, that it makes me nauseous and even makes my throat burn sometimes. Is it possible that I just have a more sensitive sense of smell than everyone else in my family?

Also, I have heard that some people are able to smell certain types of mold more easily than others. My only other idea is that perhaps one of the closets up here has mold or something, although I can't see anything that looks like mold anywhere. This has become very annoying, because the attic is my safe haven from all other sensory triggers, and now I can't even breathe through my nose when i'm up there!

Has anyone else here ever been able to smell something that no one else could? Or am i really nuts?


You have a few interesting suggestions here I see.

On a serious note I have had a similar problem. I am very sensitive to many cosmetics and household cleaning chemicals. If the bottle of a particular product is opened in another room 20 feet away I can smell it. The smell to me is very strong, though others don't notice it.
I react to these chemicals with a persistant cough nausea fatigue and itchy eyes. Two of the main culprits for me are. Aluminium Chlorohydrate, found in anti perspirants and Benzalkonium Chloride, found in disinfectants. If I am exposed to these I will cough for several hours afterwards.
Google the MSDS for these and see. So check to see if someone is using cleaning products, or perhaps surface insecticides in or around your third floor. I can't even have bottles containing these in the house, I will smell it.



Jediscraps
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12 Nov 2010, 12:39 am

I like the ghost fart hypothesis for the phantom smell.



katzefrau
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12 Nov 2010, 1:20 am

i doubt you're nuts. you probably are smelling something other people cannot, and specifically you are hyper sensitive to it. if someone starts up a BBQ anywhere outside my apartment i can't tolerate the lighter fluid smell. i will sometimes leave until it gets going and the lighter fluid smell dies down in favor of cooking stuff. if anyone else was like this, we would all be vacating my building and no one would BBQ. but other things i don't smell any more strongly than anyone else, i don't think.

i sometimes smell things incorrectly ("salami" instead of "gasoline") or have flashbacks of smells that bothered me several days or a week ago.

some funny things can happen when you have weird sensory wiring i think ..


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Todesking
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12 Nov 2010, 3:11 am

I had a friend who was an air sea rescue crewman durring the Vietnam war. He was a winch operator he said he had to poke his head out the helicopter door when they were bringing a down pilot into the helicopter when he looked out the door the pilot had a small .25 caliber pistol in a breast pocket that went off when the diver who was holding him readjusted his grip. The pistol shot him in the front of the helmet with enough force to go a little ways into his skull. It only did minor damage but he said he could smell and taste vanilla until they got him to the ship. 8O


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pensieve
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12 Nov 2010, 6:41 am

I smell a lot of unknown stuff. I usually freak out when I get overwhelmed by this weird smell only to realise that my mum is cooking dinner. Then the smell actually makes more sense to me. If I don't know what the smell is I can't place the smell and it's just overwhelming.
I always smell something burning.


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kat_ross
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13 Nov 2010, 7:31 pm

thanks for the replies! perhaps it is some type of cleaning product that is being used. i do seem to be sensitive to chemicals, because i have a fairly unpleasant reaction to my mom's hairspray every morning.



caligirl
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13 Nov 2010, 10:22 pm

I am very over sensitive to smells. Yesterday I smelled my aunt's perfume and knew she was home, from all the way up stairs in the back of the house. she had not even come in the house, she was just opening up her car door. same thing happens with my mom, i will be walking down the stairs and smell her home.. go to the door and she's getting out of the car.



billybud21
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13 Nov 2010, 10:25 pm

Some aspies are very sensitive to smell, so yes you could smell something real that your other family members do not smell themselves.


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Robdemanc
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14 Nov 2010, 9:24 am

I smell things that other cannot. I remember a good example was at work once. We worked on the 2nd floor and one day I could smell bacon. I mentioned it and all my colleagues said they couldn't smell it. But I could smell it all afternoon. Later I found out that the catering staff had been making bacon sandwiches in the kitchen in the basement.

Maybe it is mould or rotten wood. I think AS makes us more sensitive to smells. I always get anxious whenever I smell gas.



KakashiYay
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14 Nov 2010, 9:48 am

I hope you don't obsess about what I'm about to say!

Last week, I kept smelling something rotten and decaying. After power-cleaning the kitchen, taking out all the trash, and lighting a non-fruity candle, I could still smell it. Neither my husband nor father, who was visiting, could smell it. We found out 2 days later than our neighbor had died, and had been in his home for over 2 weeks. It was unseasonably warm and breezy the two days it bothered me, then froze up. I really think that's what the problem was, and it squicks me out to no end that I was breathing dead guy!

But probably there's just a bit of apple peel under your stove. Probably. :wink:



billybud21
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14 Nov 2010, 10:14 am

KakashiYay wrote:
I hope you don't obsess about what I'm about to say!

Last week, I kept smelling something rotten and decaying. After power-cleaning the kitchen, taking out all the trash, and lighting a non-fruity candle, I could still smell it. Neither my husband nor father, who was visiting, could smell it. We found out 2 days later than our neighbor had died, and had been in his home for over 2 weeks. It was unseasonably warm and breezy the two days it bothered me, then froze up. I really think that's what the problem was, and it squicks me out to no end that I was breathing dead guy!

But probably there's just a bit of apple peel under your stove. Probably. :wink:


Oh, my Kakashi, I sure hope it was the apple peel too!


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