Olfactory Hallucinations

So this is the second time in the past three months this has happened.

Yesterday I could smell cigarette smoke wherever I went. I dont smoke.(used to)

Like somebody was stood next to me with a fag on, ALL day.

I got home from work and the cigarette smell was all over the house like there was a party on and people smoking freely there.

I asked the wife, she looked at me like I was joking with her.

I went to bed still smelling smoke and got up to see to my young son two hours later and I could still smell fags.

Today I woke up and it has gone.

The internets diagnosis is that I have Phantosmia, though im not sure if I like the description.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantosmia

Hallucinations of a nasal nature, drug free too eh, pretty mad stuff I think.

Anyone else experience this?

interesting--i always associated smelling things that aren't there with ghosts and stuff, such as smelling your gran's old perfume... funny to hear that it could just be a hallucination lol

that came off as pretty cold. didn't mean that

'cold', god... i'll stop typing now

Maybe you are having a cancerous tumor messing up the smell center in your brain.

  On 12/4/2012 at 10:07 PM, isaki said:

that came off as pretty cold. didn't mean that

 

 

'cold', god... i'll stop typing now

No offence taken

  On 12/4/2012 at 10:56 PM, azatoth said:

Maybe you are having a cancerous tumor messing up the smell center in your brain.

That could be it yes, and my whole experience could degenerate into one big hallucination.

usually when you smell thing that arnt there means that your having a stroke.

  On 12/4/2012 at 11:37 PM, Frankie5fingers said:

usually when you smell thing that arnt there means that your having a stroke.

Ive still got all my faculties..... for now.

I've had these, but all related to smoking. When I really wanted a cigarette I'd smell one. When I was smoking cloves I would smell cloves. Likewise for greenery.

protip: if you smell burnt toast or burnt rubber when there is none, it's quite likely you're having a stroke or aneurysm.

Occassionally I think I smell shit all day while people around me don't notice it. It's not them, because I'll still smell it while alone. Theory 1. it's the leftover coffee stink on my breath that's more noticable to me because it's my mouth connected to my olfactory system 2. I just get phantom shit hallucinations.

It's never been something that's concerned me particularly, it's just fucked up and weird, and slightly unpleasant.

maybe you have a sinus infection that's rotting the inside of your skull and it smells oddly like cigarettes.

I just get really intense association with smells, or I'll think something tastes like something completely unrelated.

Like good hoppy IPAs tend to taste the way freshly laid carpet smells.

Or how Camel smoke sometimes smells a little like peanut butter.

haha we are all so fucked

have to go with the previous diagnosis of stroke or brain cancer. Hope not!

  On 12/5/2012 at 12:05 AM, A/D said:

Likewise for greenery.

yeah, I was going to say, when I used to smoke like 3 + times a day, I would always smell it when I ran out & was craving it. really irritating too, because that's one of my favorite smells, and it would just make me want it more.

anyway

I wouldn't know if it was craving or not in your case. since you were smelling it that strongly all day, it seems unlikely that it could be that (not that it would necessarily be something terminal like everyone is suggesting though...)

  On 12/5/2012 at 12:20 AM, kaini said:

protip: if you smell burnt toast or burnt rubber when there is none, it's quite likely you're having a stroke or aneurysm.

wtf

according to this, i have had at least 50 strokes within the past 5 years.

  On 12/5/2012 at 12:35 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Occassionally I think I smell shit all day while people around me don't notice it. It's not them, because I'll still smell it while alone. Theory 1. it's the leftover coffee stink on my breath that's more noticable to me because it's my mouth connected to my olfactory system 2. I just get phantom shit hallucinations.

It's never been something that's concerned me particularly, it's just fucked up and weird, and slightly unpleasant.

it happens to me too... I sometimes think it reallyi s my ass... it feels weird though I always clean it up quite artistically... a mystery

  On 12/5/2012 at 3:39 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

 

  On 12/5/2012 at 12:20 AM, kaini said:

protip: if you smell burnt toast or burnt rubber when there is none, it's quite likely you're having a stroke or aneurysm.

wtf

 

 

according to this, i have had at least 50 strokes within the past 5 years.

 

i also had a cat-scan for something unrelated, and there was no cancer showing up there......so i must be having tons of mini strokes?

I dissected an earthworm in school and that smell got stuck in my head for months. Whenever I came somewhere worms could be in the vicinity I started smelling worm intestines. I think what you expect to smell can certainly influence how you identify an odor.

Recently my farts have started to smell like baby poo, virtually indistinguishable from that of our 11 month-old

Also spindles of CD-Rs have smell like maple syrup, amirite?

  On 12/5/2012 at 4:02 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

 

  On 12/5/2012 at 3:39 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

 

  On 12/5/2012 at 12:20 AM, kaini said:

protip: if you smell burnt toast or burnt rubber when there is none, it's quite likely you're having a stroke or aneurysm.

wtf

 

 

according to this, i have had at least 50 strokes within the past 5 years.

 

 

 

i also had a cat-scan for something unrelated, and there was no cancer showing up there......so i must be having tons of mini strokes?

 

well it is actually possible to have a stroke and not even know.

this isnt the case with you cause the CT scan would have shown that. just saying that it is possible.

but usually smelling things that arnt there can be a sign of an oncoming stroke.

in all serious to the question though, yes you can hallucinate an odor.

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Phantosmia?qsrc=3044

i figured it was because of smoking....hurt my sense of smell, now that its recovering or reorienting, it gets its "wires mixed" so to speak.

any truth in that?

if ive had a stroke comin to me in the past 5 years it needs to hurry the fuck up....im guessing thats not it.

  On 12/5/2012 at 4:23 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

 

Also spindles of CD-Rs have smell like maple syrup, amirite?

No.

Electric celery.