I remember that smell !

[Orion]

Hi all,

I’m new to the forum. I stumbled across the documentary by accident. I love it. It was amazing to see all those issues I am so familiar with being discussed and explained right on TV! How cool is that? I have pretty much known for the last 2 years that I have ADD but have never gotten diagnosed. I have combed through all the internet sites and all the books on ADD and they just keep confirming my suspicions. I just recently took the plunge and had my first doctor visit. I am going in for my second one tomorrow. Yay!

Anyway… I was wondering if anyone else is like me in the following way. I can remember places and times simply by their smell. I mean, I don’t remember what it looked like or when I was there or with whom, but I can remember what it smelled like. Even the weirdest, most mundane smells are locked in and attached to memory. When I smell something familiar, I think. .”Hey, that’s how my childhood friend’s basement smelled ” or ” that is just how it smelled that day I was waiting in line to pay a speeding ticket in that courthouse in that far away town 10 years ago”. ( not just any courthouse, but that exact one). Sometimes, I can even remember a smell without even smelling it. My family has made fun of this trait all my life. They’d say ” Hey, does this smell like August 23rd?”.

Also, I have long known that what I smell can greatly affect my mood. If I am having the greatest time doing something I love, with fun people, I would still be distracted by how unpleasant it smells. And I’m not talking about a manure farm or anything, just normal smells. And on the flip side, I could be somewhere not fun and wishing I was doing something else but thinking ” wow, this smells good”. So, there it is. anyone? Hey this website smells funny……

Orion

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[Anonymous]

I’m the same way. I thought it was normal. I’ll always remember what Katie Warner’s basement smelled like in the late 1960″s or Alice Goodman’s father (don’t get the wrong idea, nothing traumatic happened, just his brand of cigarettes, wool coat, & probably aftershave), also the studio where I took dance class, in fact, most of the 1960’s are coded in smells for me…that was when I was a kid. I remember what happened when I was very very small by whether life was in Spanish or English (we came from Chile). I think I stopped doing that probably in the mid-1970’s when I started high school…no, I guess I still get reminded of someone by a perfume or sometimes a really familiar smell that I just can’t place, a mix of things, like the beach (sea, coconut, sweat, rotting seaweed) or camping (wood smoke, trees) or Brussles or…

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[Anonymous]

I’m very sensitive to smells and some trigger different memories. But I mostly remember faces. I usually won’t remember names, street addresses or vaguely remember places but peoples faces are what I remember most & their relationship with me or what I remember of them.

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[Anonymous]

My husband says I have a superhero since of smell. It can be annoying at times and certain smells cause me to have severe migraines (perfumes, scented candles, cologne, cigarette smoke and some chemicals). On the other hand, I too have significant memories related to smells. My favorite is the comforting smell of my grandfather…a combination of Old Spice and coffee. The sad thing is that I think I am losing the ability to recall these smells. I am going through perimenopause and I wonder if that is why. I also have Fibromyalgia and I found out that a heightened sense of smell is pretty common with Fibro patients as well!

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