Smells that give you a headache

Lilies are just the worst. I have to ask people to move them out of the room if I see them. I get a headache within minutes. I also have the same problem with students spraying their smellies in the classroom. Lots of strong perfumes get me too.

I've always had big issues with smells.  I can't stand any kind of chemical smell, I get such bad headaches and can feel ill for days.  Perfumes, candles, air fresheners, deodorants, body creams etc.  I genuinely don't know how people can sit in their house with chemical smells surrounding them and their windows closed.  In my last job I had to speak to our Senior Managers about people spraying solvents in the office.  I was going home ill at the end of each day.  

It doesn't give me a head, just makes me incredibly angry, chewing gum - I can't stand the sound, sight or smell of chewing gum either.  I don't understand how people are taught not to talk with their mouth full and to eat politely etc, will then stand then chomping gum sharing their chewing and saliva with the world, and that disgusting mint smell that goes with it.  

I pathologically LOATHE the smell of boiling potatoes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1....... even the word  SPUD or MASH brings me to rage..... i would happily execute ALL potato growers and banish that smell forever.

I got some mini candles for christmas a few years ago. I had to throw them out as i couldnt concentrate on anything other than the smell.

I have a good memory for smells too. I can still conjire the smell of the cate home my grabdna was in last year. It was a smell unlike snything ive ever smelled before or since. I think i read somewhere that smell is the strongest sense for bringing back memories. 

I often find myself identifying random smells and likening them to things for example "ooo it smells spicy" or "it smells like pencils" when out and sbout.

When i was a child strong smells used to make me heave. I couldnt eat certain branded bread as i didnt like the smell. I think my parents put this down to a quirk. I havent discussed my self identifying  ASC with them yet but plan to this weekend if i dont chicken out.

One of my favourite words is OLFACTORY.

I'm done with Christmas Cards said:

Is it more prevalent in ASD than non-ASD?

Greetings. I often say this at certain Threads... but sensitivity to certain smells is little to do with Autism. It is used as part of the diagnosis sometimes, because it is as if there are more Autistic persons paying an attention to Olfaction than there are Non-Autistic persons. There are plenty of Non-ASD people who have great senses of smell. And an extreme reaction such as a headache is in my opinion a warning that that particular Scent contains a Chemical which Oneself should profit in life by very much avoiding.

...That is my Waffling, anyway... (!) I do not have this problem so much, because I have the more direct/blatant  'Warning Mechanism' called Asthma..: i.e. - Rather than just getting a headache, I simply am unable to take another breath at all. There can be no more direct a message than that! 

(Good Fortune to You anyway!)

flowers, esp lilies, perfumes, deodorants (me too elly on the annoying children spraying - when it happens I have to teach from the corridor as I can't enter the room...

I have allergies as well as in sneezing. itching etc, as well as headaches/sinus troubles so double whammy really

See ... another sensory sensitivity! There are fabric textures that I can't abide, but I am not too bad with labels, unless they are particularly scratchy. I hear that is a very common problem though

I'm kind of surprised it wasn't mentioned. It certainly was at mine. I just checked my diagnosis report though, and it isn't one of the 6 areas assessed in the ASDI. It is mentioned in its own section though, so presumably sensory issues are common enough to warrant inclusion in the diagnosis details. Up to the day of my diagnostic appointment, I'd never really given much thought to why I was oversensitive to these sensory things, and suddenly it all became clear!

Thanks moggsy ...... yet more circumstantial evidence that I should be getting a positive DX! Never discussed at the evaluation meeting though. We did discuss clothing labels though, and the fact that I nagged my mother to cut them out of my clothes :-)

Hiya

It certainly is. One of the features of ASD is sensory sensitivities, and this can affect any of your senses. I have pretty much all of them. Sometimes it can be quite cool (like having an amazing memory for smells, or being able to tell what went into a really nice dish in a restaurant by smell and taste), other times not so much. If someone with strong perfume sits next to me on the train, I have to put a scarf across my face and breathe through that, and I will still feel really sick by the time I get to work.

There is a perfume (don't know which one) that seems to be popular at the moment, "Eau d'alcoholic tramp" I call it. To me, base tones of cloying sweet fermented fruit, overlaid with the smell of stale spilt booze. Now I am sure it doesn't smell like that to anybody else, or no-one would buy it, but that's how it smells to me!

Someone once sprayed perfume in the office at the end of the day, before wafting out of the door leaving a vile vapour trail hanging in the air. I'd stayed late to finish something, and missed my train to do so. I was not amused when this lack of consideration provoked an instant migraine. Since I get visual migraines, and I work at a computer, that rendered me useless as I couldn't even see where the screen was through the migraine flickers. So yup, can totally sympathise with the headache problem. 

Sounds like you have a classic case of sensory sensitivity!

Morning I'm done with Christmas Cards

For me..it is aerosol deodorants.  I work as a teacher so have to remind students if they arrive to class, sweaty from a PE lesson to pop out to the corridor and spray --- i can handle the smell of sweat but the aerosol fumes go right to the back of my mouth and will give me a migraine // bad headache

everything else is fine and I have a pretty rubbish sense of smell (see above - from resilience teaching sweaty teenagers and diminished nasal capacities as a filthy smoker) - I do great smoke rings with my trunk!