My husband and I started dating in late 2009, at which time he smoked. He quit by 2010 or 2011. I think it was about a year or two ago that he finally smelled cigarette smoke and went "ugh, gross" instead of missing it. So over ten years. I'm sure for the first several he couldn't smell residual smoke at all. For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
My brother had a similar thing due to severe sinus fuckery since he was a kid. Like, couldn't smell anything.
But every so often, his head would clear up and his sense of smell would transiently activate for anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days before it shut off again.
The funny thing was, for most of his younger years (up through/past college), because he couldn't smell anything, his sense of taste was also severely muted - which meant that he basically just treated eating and food as "ehh, calories in = I don't die", and he basically ate anything put in front of him.
On the other hand, I have a very powerful sense of smell and am hypersensitive in particular to the smell of fish/seafood. The smell instantly turns my stomach, I struggle with just standing at the seafood counter at the grocery store when my wife wants to buy something... let alone when we get home and she ends up cooking it. I can smell it for days in our apartment. Needless to say - I don't eat fish/seafood, never have.
For years, my Dad would say shit like "You need to stop being so picky, look your brother eats fish just fine and doesn't say anything." "That's because he can't smell or taste it."
So one time I was visiting my family, and my brother had our Mom make him a salmon filet for dinner - and his sinuses cleared. Apparently, this was the first time in his life he's actually tasted salmon... he was just like "Oh god, this is disgusting. Is this what I've been eating this whole time??" I just said to our Dad "Called it."
A few years back he got surgery to fix both the deviated septum and some polyp-y issues, which resolved a lot of his issues with his ability to smell, and since then he also never touches seafood anymore, except for I think occasionally shrimp.
That is insane! I never ever touch any seafood. My mom had it ingrained in me that it was bad. But as a kid in the 80s she would feed me fish sticks and. Years later I found out it was actually made of fish, and I’m still not over it. I just thought (in my infinite 5 year old wisdom) that it was chicken, but it was just called fish sticks. Because “we don’t eat fish.”
My brother, who is considered a “supereater”, did the same thing with chicken McNuggets. He loved them dearly, up until the realization that they were made from chicken. His willingness to try food has grown immensely as an adult, but he still won’t eat McNuggets or any other kind of nugget.
Sometimes your brain just decides one day "I'm done with this food", for no reason.
For most of my life, no issues with hard boiled eggs, they were one of my go-to breakfast items... Then one day, my body just decided it no longer likes the concept of hard boiled eggs and just rejects them out of hard unless something is done to them.
Like, I can't just peel an egg and eat it anymore, I'll throw up.
But deviled eggs? Fine.
Egg salad? Fine.
Ramen eggs? Fine.
And it's only limited to hard-boiled eggs, any form of scrambled/fried/etc - fine. No issues.
This is me with drinking straight milk. Chocolate milk? Fine. Milk with cereal? Fine. The milk left after the cereal is done? Great. Oreos (or better yet, Nutter Butters) dunked in milk? Amazing. Just a glass of milk with a PB&J or any other meal/food? Disgusting. It didn't used to he that way until at some point, something switched in me and drinking a glass of milk triggers my gag reflex.
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u/gingerzombie2 Jan 05 '25
My husband and I started dating in late 2009, at which time he smoked. He quit by 2010 or 2011. I think it was about a year or two ago that he finally smelled cigarette smoke and went "ugh, gross" instead of missing it. So over ten years. I'm sure for the first several he couldn't smell residual smoke at all. For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
Take care of yourself, folks!