Awful smell - phantosmia

I haven’t been diagnosed with this. But I frequently complain of smelling coal burning, it used to annoy my husband as I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t smell it aswell.
My daughter researched this and came up with Phantosmia. It comes and goes and until I read this I realised I haven’t noticed the smell for a few years.

I had similar when l had Covid. I had a very strong smell of burning, kept searching the house to check there wasn't any fire. Very disturbing.

Funny that this has come up, I often smell smoke, not cigarette smoke but bonfire smelling smoke. Very odd and who knew it has a name.🤔

Yes!

Recently after a serious illness I commented in a confused/concerned way to my husband that i could smell sewage. Then I turned around to see a woman smoking on the table next to me.

That's when I realised. Since then I don't trust my sense of smell. I have smelled other things that weren't there. So wierd! Thanks for sharing this.

Since Covid I can often smell burning woodsmoke which is really unpleasant. There has been the other odd smell which fortunately has gone but this one keeps returning !

Yesterday I smelt cabbage but my family said there was no cabbage smell!

I don't trust my own sense of smell anymore. Yesterday my husband tried to get me to smell some pet mince to see if it had gone off but all I could smell was milk!

When I have had it, luckily it's always been the smell of brandy.

Yes, I get a constant foul smell through one nostril, like rotting flesh which no one else can smell (not that I've ever smelt rotting flesh). It's caused by something called a fungal ball, which can lead on from sinusitis. I'm awaiting an op to have it removed. Once smelt, never forgotten.

For ages I though that I could smell cigarettes, however it turned out to be a used coffee cup, weird that it smelled like cigarettes as it became old, now whenever I smell it I look for a discarded coffee cup 😁

Yes post really bad cold last winter it was Cigarettes..eventually went.
Then I picked up another bad cold in the early summer and it was Petrol
All gone now, but apparently common post covid, so perhaps my "Colds" were Covid?

I’ve never been diagnosed however, yes, I’ve experienced it many times, mainly burning smells but also bad eggs and perfume that no one else can smell!

Not imaginary smells, but I do have a very good sense of smell in certain weather conditions, I think that humidity carries smells better. It isn't unusual for me to smell things that nobody else picks up.

The good thing is that I haven't smelt actual sewage. The bad thing is that every time I smell someone smoking it smells like sewage.

Yes I have. Ever since I’ve had Covid. It’s not all the time but enough to make you fill mad as nobody else can smell it. I smell cigarettes not a good smell. Haven’t done anything about it not sure it can be sorted. I’m glad I am not the only one .

Over the past year or so I often smell electrical burning around the house. We've investigated everywhere we can think of but all seems well. I have a highly developed sense of smell though; my husband calls me his little bloodhound

Sometimes it could be the result of an underlying sinus infection but maybe not.

I have had phantosmia for eight years, a most unpleasant condition. My late husband smoked and on our wedding anniversary a year after he died I smelt cigarettes. It has never fully gone away and I have experienced many nasty smells though lately there have been sweeter aromas. I cannot smell anything or taste but it isn't life threatening, so that's a plus!

I went through a phase earlier this year, of smelling curry, on the stairs - only in the middle, not at the top or bottom. I washed the few coats hanging at the bottom of the stairs, just in case, but it wasn't that. It lasted a few months and then went.

My burning smell was of burnt toast it occurred when on a reducing dose of prednisolone. It lasted for several months after I had tapered of the meds

I can often smell things that I am seeing on the tele. Brick dust and wet plaster are the most common. I can also frequently smell wet plaster in the down stairs loo but no leaks. Not sure if it was pre covid but defo post.

Since my husband died in February 2021 I often smell food he used to cook at all times of the day and night. At first I really thought it was neighbours cooking but even when I have all the doors and windows shut and at various times in the middle of the night I still smell it. Its a nice smell so I dont mind, it might all be in my head but its not a problem.

I get wafts of strong Lily scent. I hate it, makes me feel really sick.

I regularly smell cigarette smoke , it drives me mad as I hate it, but have learnt to live with it , love to know what causes it

I don’t want to belittle what must be a really unpleasant thing to suffer from, but I keep thinking of Mary, my favourite character in Ghosts. Smell is the most powerful sense when regarding memory, isn’t it?I know that sometimes, if I smell something unpleasant, the smell seems to remain in my nose for a long time afterwards. It’s quite a complicated sense I think.Sometimes, when I think of peoples homes I can imagine the smell of that house eg my daughters house makes me think of the smell of the washing up liquid that she uses and my cousins house conjures up the smell of Lynx that his son used to wear.