Scents and memories

[Raev]

So, I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one afflicted with this problem.

Some images remind me of certain scents and vice versa. Not always for the best either.

Case in point. A handful of years ago a woman I was trying to hook up with sent me a text message that was a little graphic. It was also very very nice. Alas, I was at work at the time and pulling into a waste management yard. So at about the time I was seeing the picture, I was also getting hit with the stench of rotting garbage.

Fast forward a little bit of time. I take her home. Get her undressed, see her body and *POW* the sight triggers the memory of that stench. Not only could I not perform that night - I never could with her. Every time i saw her after that I was hit by the memory of the trashyard.

This kind of stuff happens to me all the time, too. Scents remind me vividly of things as well.

Does this happen to everyone or am I just cursed? lol

[Slogo]

No you aren't. It's kind of a problem of mine do to the fact that my vision and hearing is terrible. For me though it's more like I can smell something (where the scent isn't even around) and it'll make me feel like it's 6 years ago

[Msterbeau]

i think it's pretty damn normal that these sorts of associations take place in our head. Like it or not. It certainly begins to explain a lot of "kinky" and odd behavior.

[Rev.Reverence]

"normal"

More later

[jynxxxedangel]

I also have an abnormally-overdeveloped limbic system. It can be great, if I want to remember someone, or something. Not so great, when scents trigger bad memories.

[pomba gira]

No you aren't. It's kind of a problem of mine do to the fact that my vision and hearing is terrible. For me though it's more like I can smell something (where the scent isn't even around) and it'll make me feel like it's 6 years ago

I do something similar... kind of hallucinate smells. I'll get a scent stuck in my head, just like getting a song stuck there. The scent isn't connected with a certain memory though.

[TheGimp]

i had one like Reavs before i was at a party when i was still in High school and me and the girl i d met there went out to her car for privacy and after we get settled in her car we start making out and what have you well at some point we stopped briefly to catch out breath and as we both look out the window we see some drunk chick spew chunks on the sidewalk about 2 feet away and it was awful then a few months later we ended up getting in a fight and not speaking for 6 months we ran into each other at Necto and made up hung out with her the next day got to her house. got to her room. she got half naked then i smelled puke again....not cool

[Oh_My_Goth]

It happens to Me all of the time

[bean]

Certain scents remind me of certain things or will bring up an emotion.

[StormKnight (1)]

Smells tend to be rather powerful stimulus for memories. The olfactory nerve is a direct extension of your brain (all other cranial nerves have some sort of intermediate connection to regulate it.) hanging out in your nose, picking up odors. It is a documented phenomenon that odors can elicit memories and thoughts.

I have it as well. To this day, the smell of macaroni and cheese, canned peaches and apricots make me nauseous and ill, most likely because of the bad incidents that I had when those foods were exposed to me. To this day, the smell gets to me so bad, these are foods I am pretty much guaranteed not to even touch, let alone eat. Seriously, the reaction is bad enough to make the vampire/garlic aversion look like nothing.

So, now that I have given you the secret of Knightsbane, I think at least those foods will be safe.

[EvilEve]

this is not an uncommon association. EVERYONE does this in one way, form, or another.

case and point: the smell of fall, halloween make-up, or leather remind me of Prophet (my late fiance) almost always. there's no way of getting it out of my head.

Edited August 3, 2009 by EvilEve

[AstralCrux]

I've woken up and had some scents that brought back mixed memories, but I do have a pretty distinct scent memory. I can vividly see what I saw during the time the memory was caught, or if it is a collection of emotion- like with lilacs, I feel the concept of the memories.

[taysteewonderbunny]

To back up what SK was saying, check out How Smell Works, part 4: smells and memory.

[AmieLamie]

That happens a lot to me as well.

When I see something and then remember the smell, it's so real.

Like the scent is actually present, but it's just in my mind.

It's so weird, but probably normal.

(cool)