I swear I wasn’t always like this but I’ve noticed that I’ve become very sensitive to perfumes and colognes…or anything that’s sprayed or aerosolized. I don’t feel like I was always this sensitive to these odors, but like, now I can be walking behind people who are more than 10 feet away from me and the wind will bring the smell of perfume and cologne which always reeks of acidic chemicals and hurts to inhale to the point where I have to keep like 20 feet distance from anyone who seems to be wearing it. Are more people just bathing in perfume or cologne these days or is this a hypersensitivity? Is it something other people experience? It just feels like it might not just be an autism thing because I swear I wasn’t always this sensitive to smells but i’ve been like this for a few years now…
Sensitivity to smells is an autism thing. I have it, and it has grown significantly worse over time. I won’t go into smelly stores like candle shops, perfume shops etc. I can’t stand it.
Either way, not just you.
A little thing i use to alleviate it at least in trains: it has gotten a lot more acceptable to wear masks in public thanks to Corona and i use that whenever a smoker or a sweaty person sits close to me in a train. The ffp2 ones block smell really well
Sensitivity of senses can also be a symptom of migraines. Sensitivity to light or sound are more common, but it can also be the case with smell.
https://www.migrainedisorders.org/osmophobia/
https://migraine.com/migraine-symptoms/sensitivity-to-smells
(Only skimmed through the links. They seem fine.)
I would assume there are many other possible physical reasons for a heightened sense of smell.
Unfortunately our bodies age and things can develop that you haven’t had before. It’s always good to question and even better to know what causes (unpleasant) things and maybe even find a cure or just means of improvement.
I don’t mean to say this is the case for you. Just some anecdotal very general thought/advice: On the other hand sometimes trying to find the exact cause can turn into a rabbit hole and at some point it might consume so much time/energy with little to no improvement, that it makes sense to accept it and make the best of it.
Hope you can find out what causes it for you and that aren’t bothered too much by it and can maybe even get some positives out of that dog type “super power” :-)
I’ve always had it, but I get more sensitive if general inflammation is activated.
Yesterday I was on a plane and someone was painting their nails or something. I couldn’t even see who it was but I’m still feeling it.
Can relate having auhd. It just causes migraines. Can be a real turn off for sex
Perimenopause may cause sensory issues, smell being among them.
I have issues especially with cologne or perfume. It varies, too, sometimes worse than others. It’s like I get a spritz of something nasty right up my nose.
If it’s just recent. You could be pregnant, recovering from trauma or have an infection of some sort.
Do autism signs often appear for people only as adults? I haven’t heard of that and would like to know the answer
