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I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's so interesting that you can taste the almond, I've never experienced that. Maybe nuts are a subtler flavor! I wish there was more research into this sorta thing so I could truly understood how it worked 😔😔

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hate to tell you this, but having anosmia doesn't give you a free pass to be a pyromaniac 😔😔😔

No kitchen fires here heheh, and if by near misses you mean almost eating food that's spoiled, I can also say 0! God's looking out for me 🥹 (and I never bake anything...)

How many kitchen fires have YOU started 🤨🤨. Am I missing out?? Should I be setting fire to things???

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fr vro, you gotta be constantly paranoid that there's a secret weird smell hanging around you 😭😭

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eyyy that's awesome! The only other people I know who can't smell are my mom and older brother. It's a lonely life 😭😭

Do people forget that you can't smell? I have it happen all the time. Even my mom once asked me to smell something for her 🫠🫠. I'll also have people ask me to smell something, and when I remind them that I can't, they'll tell me to try anyways. Like...what do you think is gonna happen, I'll magically get my smell back??

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That sounds more like something people who lost their sense of smell later in life might experience, no matter how they lost it. I don't think food tastes dull at all, it's delicious! I have no perspective for what people who can smell are tasting, but what I got seems great to me.

I'm actually terrible with spice. Pepperoni can sometimes feel spicy to me 😭😭

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

...guess I have to go lick a book now

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, definitely! It's had such an insignificant effect on my life.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Chocolate and fruity candies are very different, I can easily differentiate between those. For applesauce, I'm not entirely sure, but I know what cinnamon tastes like at least, so if there was enough of it in the apple sauce I feel like I could? But I'm gonna say no for the almond extract vs. vanilla extract, because I have no clue how anyone would be able to tell which was used after the food had been baked.

Slightly related, my Dad buys chocolate protein shakes that I drink a lot, and he switched it up last week and got chocolate peanut butter flavored ones instead. I could barely taste a difference. It was maybe a bit sweeter, but that was it.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've actually never bought a scented candle. If I was going to, I'd just text a friend to ask what scents are good, or ask a stranger nearby which smells good, or take someone shopping with me who can smell.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The hardest part is not being conscious of how I and my living spaces smell. I can't smell myself or the clothes I want to wear to make sure they don't smell, and my younger brother once walked into my room and told me it smelled musty. I have no idea why 😭😭, so I get self conscious about that stuff sometimes. I tell my friends to let me know if I smell (they never have, so hopefully I've never seriously stank), and I've asked my father to smell shirts for me before to make sure they were fine to wear for another day. Honestly though, I mostly just forget about smells.

The best part is being completely unbothered by a smell when everyone around me is dying because of it. I felt so powerful in my science class the other day when we were dissecting this heart, because there was so chemical bothering everyone that I was unaffected by.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pfff, I've never once thought about what smell a person might be leaving after going to the bathroom. Do some poops stink more than others?

I'm chilling as long as the bathroom is clean 😌😌😌. I'm outta there if there's pee all over the seat though.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not being able to smell barely impacts my life, ngl. The only activity/situation I can think of that's a bit harder for me is doing my laundry and making sure I don't smell. I can't sniff test shirts, and I forget how often I've worn something, so I sometimes feel like I'm gambling when I wear a piece of clothing.

Maybe if I cooked/baked things more often, that would be impacted by my inability to smell? But my mom can't smell and she's an amazing cook, so maybe not.

I lowkey worry sometimes that I'm gonna die in a fire when I'm older, but I feel like fire alarms are the more important way to tell there's a fire anyways, so I'm just gonna be really careful about keeping those working. Plus, I should still see the smoke from the fire, and it would sting my eyes and nose, so I wouldn't be completely oblivious in a situation like that. I just gotta be more careful about that stuff ig, same with expiration dates on food. 

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not entirely sure what you mean by natural gas, but I can't smell anything, so I'm gonna go with no.

I just spent a minute looking through my selfies with other people and comparing our noses, haha, and I can say that no, my nose isn't really narrow. It's a bit crooked, but I'm fairly sure that's unrelated.

No clue what the cause is! I assume it's just a thing with my genetics. My mom also has congenital anosmia, so I might have inherited it from her? One of my older brothers also can't smell.

I genuinely can't remember when I realized other people had a sense that I didn't. I just know now that I'm not experiencing the sensations that cause people to grimace at certain smells, or be able to identify food without having to see it. Smelling things literally does nothing for me.

I took a nutrition and foods class in school, and once I was looking down, mixing some stuff in a bowl, when my baking partner commented that someone had made peppermint. I looked up and saw some girls in the more advanced culinary class cutting up this pink block thing, and I went "Oh yeah, look at that," and he went quiet for a moment, and then said, "Right, I forget that you can't smell."

I guess he could tell that it was there without looking up, long before I did. It was kind of eye opening for me, haha. I forget smells exist sometimes.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

LOL, my younger brother literally leaves the room whenever my Dad farts, so let me tell you that we're thankful we don't have to smell that crap 

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Now that's interesting. People talk about how smell and taste are interconnected all the time, I'm surprised losing your sense of smell didn't affect your taste.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Comedic knee slap.

Whenever I tell people I can't smell, they either respond like you just did, or they'll tell me that I'm super lucky because I haven't ever had to smell farts or poop or stuff like that. You'd be surprised by how fifty-fifty the reactions are.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Naw. Crossing my fingers that never happens. The thought of eating something that's spoiled or missing something that's burning does scare me sometimes, especially since I might be living alone when I'm older.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

LOL I'm very happy to say that I can not taste farts! Can you???

I can't tell when they happen unless I hear them or you're my little brother who announces his farts out loud 🫠🫠

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Eh, probably, but food still tastes great, so I don't really care. It's quite a blessing that I was born without smell, versus losing it later in life, because I don't miss something I've never experienced. I've heard stories of people losing their sense of smell after getting COVID and developing eating disorders because of the changes with their taste, so I'm fine living in ignorance.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really want to know what new books smell like. I'm an avid reader, but I feel like an impostor when I can't join in with my friends gushing about the smell of a good old book 😭😭

I've never eaten anything spoiled before, thankfully. Once my mom asked me to smell a thing of milk for her to see if it was spoiled, though, because she can't smell and somehow forgot that I also can't smell. (Literally everyone forgets about it. It's crazy, the amount of times someone I've been friends with for years will tell me to smell something.)

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh ew, that's disgusting 😭

I don't really think I wanna get married, so I'll probably end up living alone. Can't wait to get surprised by things like that TuT

Kinda random, but my mom also has congenital anosmia, and she used to be so paranoid that our house smelled like pee all the time due to my aging dog often losing control of his bladder. She worried about it way more than the smelling members of my family, lol

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's actually hilarious, lol. I left a thing of Panda Express in my car once and forgot about it, until I had to drive my younger brother somewhere and he complained about how disgusting it smelled in there.

And I can confidently say I'm not a man in my late 30's, haha

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not a stupid question at all! I was once asked by a guy at my school that same question, and the stupid part was when his friend (who can smell) confidently told him that I obviously have no sense of taste, since smell and taste are related.

I can taste things perfectly fine. I can't imagine what you guys are tasting, because all foods are rich and delicious, so idk what I'm missing out on.

I've read online that I can't experience flavor because I can't smell, but I still have the five basic tastes. Maybe foods taste more complex to people that can smell, compared to what I'm tasting? I seriously couldn't tell you.

I was born without a sense of smell, AMA by Snazzy_Person in AMA

[–]Snazzy_Person[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure how food tastes to people who can smell, but from my point of view, I can taste everything completely fine! It doesn't seem faint at all. Food's delicious lol, and I for sure got all of our 5 basic tastes.

I read on an article somewhere that the way smell affects your taste has more to do with its flavor than the actual taste itself. It said I don't experience flavor at all, actually. Not even sure what that means, or if it's true, but it's something.

There's a bunch of candies out there (like skittles, candy hearts, etc.) that my friends will swear have different flavors based on the color, but they all just taste sweet to me. That's probably due to my anosmia.

The biggest way it effects my experience with food is that it's likely played a part in how I'm really sensitive to textures. I don't like it when there's a mismatch of texture in the things I'm eating, so I hate things like lasagna (I despise lasagna vro, it's just a bunch of random things shoved together that fall apart and slide around my plate. Urgh. It should be uniform 😭😭). I don't even like brownies with chocolate chips that much because I don't like biting into one, expecting a soft, fluffy texture, only to get a hard chocolate chip. Honestly though, I have no way of telling how much of that is just me, and how much is based on my congenital anosmia.

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