Published on 12, July, 2020
Anyone else get this? Is it more prevalent in ASD than non-ASD?
I have a particular problem with those plug-in room scent things that have three alternating smells, and some of the oil-based things that are glass jars with wooden diffuser sticks. One of the smells smells very "volatile" to me, a bit like vick / ethanol / acetone (how do you describe an un-natural smell in words???) and it gives me an almost instant headache behind the eyes / nose.
As an aside, I find that discarded orange-peel quickly stops smelling of oranges and within minutes starts to smell like a full & stale cigarette ashtray? Weird!
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!
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 :-)
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!