Phantosmia One More Time

It was a powerful smell and not a pleasant one. It reminded me of putrid urine left to stew. Well that couldn't be it, so perhaps Sue was employing a very powerful, pungent cleaner downstairs.

But no. She was sitting in her chair, taking life easy. She reported smelling nothing, which means that there was nothing to smell because she has a nose that is the envy of bloodhounds. 

We began discussing this oddity and remembering similar issues in the past, and I thought I remembered experiencing this particular fake smell once before. I may have even googled it, but I didn't write about it here, so I can't be sure.

However, I could remember the very first such similar odour incident from March 2022. I had been smelling gasoline off and on for some time and finally realized that I had been hallucinating. That is when I googled “Why do I smell gasoline,” and was informed that could be side effect of the Gabapentin drug. It fit because I was taking it at that time, and I stopped forthwith because it wasn't helping me anyway.

Sue then began to remember that I also once reported smelling a]something very pleasant, like perfume. I had forgotten at first, but it came back to me, and I found two posts that I had written: January 2023 and January 2025. Why both in January, I wonder, and why did it slip my mind? The one episode was just this year. 

The name, Phantosmia, also slipped my mind until Sue mentioned that there was a word, and that is when I remembered. I do seem to require a nudge to bring things to mind, but at least they still seem to be there somewhere in the recesses of my brain.

Phantosmia is the medical term for an olfactory hallucination, where you smell odors that aren't actually present, such as burning rubber, garbage, or burnt toast. It can be unpleasant, but it's often not serious and can resolve on its own. Common causes include colds, sinus infections, migraines, head trauma, and certain medications. If the phantom smells persist for more than a few weeks, it's a good idea to see a doctor for an evaluation. (Google AI)

The odour hallucination also seemed very real in all three instances. I wonder how often people do hallucinate in general. We know, for example that grief hallucinations are not uncommon.

Hallucinating the visitation of the dead is a common and normal part of the grieving process known as bereavement hallucinations or grief hallucinations. These benign sensory experiences, such as seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling a deceased loved one, are considered a normal reaction to acute grief and can be a source of comfort to the bereaved. While these experiences feel real to the person having them, they are illusions, not actual spirits, and can be triggered by familiar sights, sounds, or smells. (Google AI)

This caused me to think of Dicken's Scrooge when the ghost of Marley visited him.

In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Jacob Marley asks Scrooge, "Why do you doubt your senses?" to which Scrooge replies, "Because, said Scrooge, a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats," attributing his inability to trust his senses to indigestion and physical ailments, a rationalization to hide his fear of the spectral apparition.

I have pretty well concluded that my issues are sinus related, but whatever the cause, I hope that should a hallucination reoccur, I will be able to enjoy pleasantly fragrant perfume rather than fetid urine.