Does Anyone Have Smell Memories?

Yep, i get these. Sometimes it's specific, like "I smell cooking onions, which makes me think of when X happened." I also get smells that just make me think of someone involved in the trauma, but I can't describe why.

 

Hi! Yep, your normal.
My husband has PTSD results of being in the military. He has several smells that trigger him. Burning hair, blood, gun powder, several others I can't think of a this moment.
The first two are the most difficult for him.

Hope things get better for you..

Take Care

D

 

My brother was (or is still) an arsonist. I was around a lot of fires. I commonly get a scent of something burning when nothing is. I can notice now it is things like anger, cramps, anxiety attacks, and the like come during high stress. This scent is not an exception.

 

My sense of smell is very acute, so I never know if its a smell memory or a real smell. But there are smells that do very much trigger me. Growing up I lived in a very old house that had roaches. Every once in a while I'll smell that same sickening sweet yukky smell of roach poo. It is very triggering. Another smell that triggers me is honeysuckle. There was a bunch of it in the back yard of where I grew up from age 7 on. Even though it is a beautiful smell, it only makes my brain automatically go back to the violence of my father. I guess smell memories are a pretty common thing from what I have read and just from talking to folks. Hope that helps.

 

i get smell memories, i can't stand my husband drinking and smoking, he has to shower before i go near him, the smell on his breath triggers me. The smell of autumn, if that even makes sense is a trigger to me too.
The smell of cigs is the worst, it takes me back and i hate it

 

i didn't use to ...but lately everytime i go to bed...i can't really describe the smell though...it's odd

 

I've actually been able to learn quite a few of my more common smell memories very well. I haven't been able to quite get through all the trigger smell memories, but I'm working my way through them. Mine range from the smell of sweat in certain areas of the body to the smell of cherry scented candles.

But I'm learning to sit down with them, in safe places and work through them. If I take control of the situation, grant myself the space and time to work through them, set up my supports and let them know in advance that I'm going to do this, I find that I can sit there and smell it all the way through the box of tissue infront of me, and come out okay.

 

This is the way it is for me, too, Herc. In my case, the smells make me think of a specific, harmful person--but generally I'm sure the smells are all in my head, so I don't know why they come. Once in a while I get the memories from real smells, but less often.

 

I used to get smell memories in my dreams/nightmares. When we landed in Vietnam, and stepped off the plane, the first thing I noticed was the humidity that seemed to hang on you. The second thing was the smell. I can't describe it, I haven't noticed a different smell to any other country I've visited except for Vietnam. When I had nightmares of being back there, the smell was there too, just as real as the visual parts. At some point, while in the Veterans inpatient PTSD program, my nightmares stopped and were replaced by dreams that didn't wake me, startled, but instead left me feeling like going back to sleep so that I could try to start the dream again. The dream, when I have it is basicly always the same. This time I'm going back to finish it, only I have full knowledge of what to expect and how to deal with it, and I'm in charge of a small group of green soldiers, and in the dream, at least, I have the ability to calm their fears of the unexpected, because of my experience. But, the smell is still there, that's how I know for sure it's about Vietnam. Sounds like a pretty whacked out dream, I know, but somewhere in there I think I sense closure of at least one of my triggers. I haven't had a nightmare in at least ten years now, and for that I'm grateful.
WarHippy

 

I have a strong smell memory connected to a trauma at 7. I can't describe the smell, I've never smelt it since, all I know is that I smelt it and it was so bad that I couldn't sleep. When I went home I even told my mum about the smell. She could only suggest that it was where the washing had been left out too long, but I know it wasn't that. I can remember the smell vividly, and I know if I ever smelt it again, I would remember it. I can even almost smell it when I think about it.

Very strange!