Remembering Smell

A sense of smell is often underappreciated, but very important.  It enhances our sense of taste, warns us of possible danger, and plays a role our physical and mental health.  Smells can affect our mood or evoke a memory of a person, place or thing.  The inability to smell has several side effects, one of which is an increase in the occurrence of depression brought on by frustration, alienation, the inability to empathize and the inability to call upon comforting memories

I used to have a sense of smell.  I have always been prone to moodiness and melancholoy, so I am not sure I can blame being a whiny baby on the loss of smell.  And I haven't lost my memory of smell, or of being able to smell.  It's just that the process works a little differently now, kind of in reverse.

Most people, when they smell say, vanilla, think of baking.  For me, I can bake all day long and never smell the scent of vanilla.  I can see a picture of vanilla in a magazine, and turn the page without a second thought.  But ask me if I remember what vanilla smells like.  Immediately, a picture of a vanilla bottle pops into my head.  Depending on the situation, and the smell I am asked to recall, that image may become something else.  Vanilla becomes cookie dough, followed by memories of learning to make chocolate chip cookies as a child.  So sure, I remember what vanilla smells like, as long as I can call up a memory of having seen or used vanilla.

I have been told that since my sense of smell did not return within a few months of losing it, it will probably never return.  That thought does make me a little sad, but I have accepted it an learned to live with it.  Not having a sense of smell has some benefits, such as not being able to smell unpleasant smells :)  But even unpleasant smells can be associated with things worth remembering.

Sometimes those memories are more vivid than others.  So from time to time, when something triggers a memory that includes the memory of a smell, I will try to write about it here.