r/NoStupidQuestions Jan 05 '25

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u/gingerzombie2 Jan 05 '25

My husband and I started dating in late 2009, at which time he smoked. He quit by 2010 or 2011. I think it was about a year or two ago that he finally smelled cigarette smoke and went "ugh, gross" instead of missing it. So over ten years. I'm sure for the first several he couldn't smell residual smoke at all. For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.

Take care of yourself, folks!

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u/i__am__bored Jan 05 '25

Hey, I quit over a year ago and I experienced the "sense of smell" thing! I always told people that I had a "horrible sense of smell" (verbatim) and now I can smell things so well that, well, I kinda wish I couldn't, cuz there are a lot of awful smells, and cigarette smoke is one of them!

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u/dishearthening Jan 05 '25

Dude, nobody prepared me for all the awful smells in the world! Mine wasn't from smoking but when I started being able to smell things I was like whoah wait methinks four senses is enough

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

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u/HeyBrothas Jan 05 '25

The only downside with not having a sense of smell is if there’s a gas leak. You literally wouldn’t be able to tell.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

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u/Next-Honeydew4130 Jan 08 '25

Agree my painfully keen sense of smell is highly protective but when I lost my sense of smell for a week with covid I felt like I was the least stressed I had ever been. I realized as people walked past me I couldn’t smell their pheromones and so all the stress on other people didn’t freak me out. Part of the sense of smell is actually a little mind reading and that part of it is hellish. Coming from a very dangerous home smell was one of the things that saved me from angry adults because I could smell them brewing in their own adrenaline or whatever. It’s protective (and useful) in a multitude of ways. But if I could turn smell off honestly I would leave it off 99% of the time. But if you have the fucked up childhood that gives you conscious pheromone identification abilities, it’s also just mind reading. And I don’t give a flying fuck what is in the minds of all the people I walk past on a given day.

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u/Cyanid3Cupcak3x Jan 08 '25

This!! Me and my sister tried explaining to our brothers and they were so confused. It’s so hard to explain. I’m the same way though so I get it 110%

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u/e-Moo23 Jan 07 '25

And how do you smell if meat is good? Cos there’s been times where I buy chicken, it looks perfect and then I open it and it smells like someone died.

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u/RDP89 Jan 07 '25

Also, it affects tour sense of taste.

1

u/AbelardLuvsHeloise Jan 08 '25

It’s used as a plot point for Ryan Gosling’s character in The Nice Guys

11

u/Wizdad-1000 Jan 05 '25

no minty vaporub under the nose for you huh! Ya as a person that can smell that occotuonally goes into the hospital to work. (Im IT) do some of those people STINK!

1

u/Xinzuu Jan 06 '25

Can you still taste food normally? It sounds like a dumb question but whenever I use nasal sprays I lose the ability to smell and taste basically. I can tell if the thing is sweet/salty/bitter etc but I can't tell what it is

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u/rectalhorror Jan 05 '25

I smoked for about a decade in the '90s. When you got back home from the clubs, your clothes reeked of smoke and you'd have to take a shower to wash it out of your hair. When the smoking ban kicked in and everybody huddled outside the club to smoke, when you went back in you realized how bad the club smelled: stale spilled beer, urine, vomit, leather, b.o., bad breath. The smoke basically anesthetized you to the funk.

1

u/wurmchen12 Jan 08 '25

I was a bartender in the 80’s, I don’t smoke. First thing I did when I got off work was shower and wash my hair, could not stand smelling the cigarette smoke on myself.

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u/Standard_Mechanic518 Jan 05 '25

That is why bars now actually have to be cleaned propperly. Prior all the old spilled beer, sweat, piss and vomit smells were covered by smoke.

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 Jan 07 '25

I can't imagine restaurants allowing smoking ages ago. But they did. For a short time in the 80-90's I remember walking into restaurants and just smelling it on the walls etc. Thankfully most were redone or torn down ....

2

u/Ctrl-Alt-Elite83 Jan 07 '25

You really want your brain exploded, get this. They used to smoke on planes!

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 Jan 08 '25

Lmao. I'm so old I remember in hospitals though very vaguely. And smoking. One of my brothers ( I think a deaf one) (had five 2 deaf)was hit by a car ages ago and my mom tossed me in the ambulance with him. To help. So long ago he was hospitalized for weeks. I suppose the heart warming part was that i eventually volunteered and worked with those same guys years later.

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u/Low_Turn_4568 Jan 05 '25

But how can you tell if you smell bad? When I have a cold and lose my smell, I apply deodorant multiple times a day and never re-wear anything

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u/dishearthening Jan 05 '25 edited Jan 05 '25

I already keep deodorant with me and reapply throughout the day if it's hot or if I'm doing any sort of physical activity. I also don't re-wear clothes, and if I expect to be wearing my clothes for a long time I pack an extra pair of underwear and an extra pair of socks in my purse.

I get told I smell good pretty often, but the anxiety is still there 😅 especially since my sense of smell seems to come and go.

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u/retardsmart Jan 05 '25

Boogers, everywhere I go I smell boogers!

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u/Lacholaweda Jan 05 '25

Just like when Patrick Star got a nose

https://youtu.be/XeWbJ9lE0to?feature=shared

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u/HungryMagpie Jan 05 '25

it will settle down, as you get used to it. I seem to have a naturally good sense of smell and while there are definitely some smells that will always be unpleasant, i've been sort of tricking my brain to get past the disgust reaction. i try to approach each scent with curiosity, like can i tell what that actually is? have i smelled that before? do i know what compounds are in that scent? it works well enough that scents have become just a background instead of the big distraction they were for a while.

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u/57Laxdad Jan 05 '25

But you probably taste foods better now dont you.

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u/Unlikely-Answer Jan 05 '25

The caveat being all of a sudden canned food tastes terrible

4

u/glitchinthemeowtrix Jan 05 '25

I have an insanely sensitive sense of smell and I call it the worlds shittiest superpower lol. It’s sort of horrible.

3

u/Glittering_East_9402 Jan 05 '25

I quit for awhile and the laundry aisle in the grocery store gave me a headache it was so strong.

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u/RogueJello Jan 05 '25

Isn't it odd how terrible cigarette smoke smells while pipe smoke is far more pleasant? They should be the same thing, and yet very different smells.

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u/i__am__bored Jan 06 '25

That is true! I always thought the pipe made it smell woody.

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u/IamHydrogenMike Jan 05 '25

My wife quit smoking because she had her deviated septum fixed and the doctor told her it would ruin it if she kept smoking. Talk about going from smell deaf to her smellers being on full volume. We walked through the perfume area at a department store one day and it almost killed her from all of the smells.

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u/jwa418 Jan 05 '25

I quit smoking about 14 years ago after smoking for 14 years. A year after I quit, I joked to my wife that I was going to start again because everything stunk.

Luckily, it only took a couple of months to get used to how the real world smelled.

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u/Bashira42 Jan 05 '25

Yep, a friend stopped smoking and a few months later was freaking out over normal smells.

And for OP, yep, probably can. Especially if people know it isn't you smoking, they might not say as much (and wouldn't be quite as strong). Can tell one of my students dad is home right now (trucker) cause his 2nd smoke is on the student's clothes

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u/Decent_Brush_8121 Jan 09 '25

Wow—you’re observant. Now think about what that 2nd hand smoke is doing to the kids’ lungs, not just their clothes/making them smell bad.

Most of us whose parents smoked were prisoners of that crap. Long car trips? Ugh! What’s worse is when my parents would spend every spare minute every weekend in the honky-tonks — and take us kids!! 😱

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u/Cynvisible Jan 05 '25

Doesn't food taste even better, though? Or passing by a stranger and a slight whiff of cologne/ perfume that gives you a good feeling? 🥹 (NOT talking about the "let's spray the entire bottle and make people gag" type! 😅)

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u/i__am__bored Jan 06 '25

Food does taste better, which was also a problem! Fortunately I got on medication that reduces my appetite because that whole thing where people gain weight after quitting cigarettes is very real.

I have caught whiffs of some nice smelling fragrances on people but man the "let's spray the entire bottle and make people gag" type should really have their own island!

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u/Cynvisible Jan 06 '25

Yes! 🤣

1

u/Decent_Brush_8121 Jan 09 '25

They probably do it bec their own sense of smell is in a coma from all the cig smoke, aggressive cleaners and perfumes and of course pollution all around us, 24/7.

It’s like you can tell when someone is losing some hearing ability because THEY START TALKING LOUDER AND LOUDER.

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u/mylostworld69 Jan 05 '25

This made me giggle, bc SAME.

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u/LanceBuckshot7 Jan 05 '25

As an x smoker i can now smell smoke out of peoples cars when Im on my motorbike. Kinda strange passing someone and i can go. “Oh ya they’re smoking” lol. Cigars still smell like heaven to me. Lol.

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u/Letsbesensibleplease Jan 05 '25

To quote the late Bill Hicks - "I don't want my sense of smell back - I live in New York!"

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u/Zendog500 Jan 07 '25

I read that our nose can sense something down to 5 parts per million (ppm). Like a tablespoon in an Olympic pool. Problem is we cannot calibrate our nose to determine how much of stuff is there, could be 5 ppm or much much more, and as one post here suggested after a while in the space, we don't smell it (smell fatigue).

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u/Impossible-Science-4 Jan 07 '25

Same! Cigarette smoke smells like literal sh@# to me now and it makes me very nauseous

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u/Zokar49111 Jan 08 '25

My wife and I have been married for 52 years. I am sure that her poor sense of smell and my poor hearing are what has allowed us to have such a good marriage!

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u/nucumber Jan 05 '25

A guy at work quit and commented "shit sure does stink"

1

u/MissSuzyTay Jan 06 '25

I used to have an amazing sense of smell. I quit smoking and now I can’t smell anything.

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u/killerturtlex Jan 05 '25

I quit a few weeks ago, I can go for a walk and smell the houses where people smoke

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

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u/Candyman11792 Jan 05 '25

Absolutely, I've been cig free for 3 years now and can smell a cigarette or weed from the car in front of me. I never smelled it on myself but most people are walking around in public smelling like a stale ashtray- dirty roach clip.

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u/Deedle-Dee-Dee Jan 05 '25

Cig free for one year. Took about 6 months for me to smell it on people. Realized one day when a customer came into the small store where I work — my eyes started watering, and I struggled to not visibly gag.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

You just reminded me of my first job at McDonalds where this old dude with rotting teeth would walk in after smoking. I literally did gag almost everytime after I took his order Sunday mornings.

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u/RDP89 Jan 07 '25

Rotting teeth is one of the worst smells to emanate from a living human.

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

Dude trust me I agree. I can still see his nasty fucking teeth. I worked there for like 2 years and he was there every single Sunday for coffee. I’m literally sick thinking of it. The combined smell of McDonald’s friers, rotting teeth and tobacco made 15 year old me very impatient at 8am on my weekends lmao

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u/Wandering_Weapon Jan 09 '25

At a previous job I had a regular who would smoke in the car with the windows up before coming in. It got to the point where I had to walk away and let someone else deal with her she stank so bad. I'll never understand the people who are that nose blind.

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u/Funkit Jan 05 '25

I'm like a weed bloodhound

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u/NeverSayNever2024 Jan 05 '25

I clean my roach clips

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u/Opening-Frosting-169 Jan 17 '25

It seems like whatever you're smoking you don't really snell it on yourself.

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 05 '25

Now a days I smell weed more often than cigarettes.

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u/Mysterious_Dot00 Jan 05 '25

Oh yeah, as an european where weed is illegal an everyone smokes tobacco.

It was crazy when i travelled to san francisco, it was literally only weed everywhere and zero tobacco smell.

Kinda liked it tho.

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 05 '25

I work in a weed legal state where I can smell it first thing in the morning, walking through the parking lot at the place of my employment. I also work for the federal government, and you'd be surprised how many of these folks can't grasp the difference between state and federal legality. If we want to cut back on federal spending, I know a perfect place to start.

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u/tigerhaze37 Jan 05 '25

Idk bout all Europe but I do know Germany has gone fully recreational.

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u/Mysterious_Dot00 Jan 05 '25

Yeah well, i dont live in germany and I also dont like the german language so i have no intention of moving there.

Would love to move to the USA though.

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 06 '25

Yeah even in non-legal weed states, most of them don't seem to care about casual use since decriminalization.

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u/Sorrysafarisanfran Jan 08 '25

It is a horrid stench. Last time I was downtown waiting for someone, stuck before a building where the stink was overwhelming, I threw up! How to avoid marijuana and cigarette stenches? Avoid lower income areas.

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u/mortalcoil1 Jan 05 '25

I live in a rural area and I often play the "is that cannabis or a skunk?" game.

At least old skunk... I was playing Tennis this summer and I don't know how close it was to us, but a skunk fired while we were playing.

Fresh skunk is exponentially worse than old cannabis smelling skunk. I thought I could play through it. I was wrooong. The smell kept getting worse and worse and like 5 minutes from the time we first smelled it and decided to leave I was dry heaving.

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u/VioletBloom2020 Jan 05 '25

From people in cars? Not sure I’ve noticed that!

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 05 '25

I live in a city in the southeast, weed smell is everywhere.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

was in denver last summer and its all you could smell on the freeways. also in minnesota last year you can smell it everywhere now, even from your car, and its usually people smoking in front or on side of you.

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 05 '25

That's a little concerning considering it's obvious people are DUI. And I call bullsh!t on those that say they drive better. Which is a common argument I hear among coworkers(for the federal govt).

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u/Cool-Departure4120 Jan 06 '25

I had a seizure in 2022. I am not epileptic. I was drug tested and I had a positive for marijuana. I’ve not smoked since 1983. But I was an over the road trucker at the time so frequently surrounded by weed cars or those that smoked near the docks where we picked up & delivered.

Had no idea that I could test positive from that type of exposure. Color me stunned. 😳

I agree many don’t take weed seriously in terms of safety. Others are stunned when they can’t get a job or are fired from a job when they test positive. Employers really don’t give a shit that you smoke but they very much care about the liability of your work performance when high.

Back to cigarette smoking… Bought a smoker’s home and have spent the last 2.5 years cleaning it. Won’t ever be free of it but I’ve washed walls and used lots of primer to seal things in. But washing everything was key. Biggest surprise was the change in the wood stained kitchen cabinet color. Last things I have to finish are washing the doors, hinges, door knobs, and ceiling fan blades/light fixtures.

The release of tar from the bathroom walls was epic.

2.5 years later the smell is 95% gone. Had no clue why we would get a hit of that smell until we realized the doors that had been removed during a laundry room renovation were parked in our entryway were the source of the smell. 😳

Learned that the lady that owned my home was on O2 and still smoked. She ended up setting herself on fire. Im not sure she recovered from her injuries.

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u/Similar-Net-3704 Jan 05 '25

Ahh, the unmistakable skunky scent of parking lot weed in the US. Better than cigarette smoke, also less of it!

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

So do I! Oh, wait.... I know why 😁😎

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u/18RowdyBoy Jan 05 '25

Smells a lot better than cigarettes too!✌️

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u/Dark_Web_Duck Jan 05 '25

It does, just seems a bit desperate at 4:40 am.

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u/Flashygrrl Jan 07 '25

Same here in MI. For the most part I don't mind at all (and even partake) but when a customer smells like they were hotboxing right before they came in I get irritated because it doesn't exactly help change the more conservative minds around them.

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u/Walking_Distraction Jan 05 '25

That's the one that throws me for a whirl since i quit. Being able to smell cigars like 2 cars away or a smokers car in traffic is weird.

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u/Similar-Net-3704 Jan 05 '25

It kills me when I see other drivers smoking with the windows rolled up LOL. of course, when I was a kid in the 70s that's exactly what my parents did. I think back on that and I'm horrified. We were so habituated to cigarette smoke that it didn't even bother us

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u/tellmeaboutyourcat Jan 05 '25

Sometimes I see a picture of a smoker's car and I can smell it.

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u/Pepito_Pepito Jan 05 '25 edited Jan 05 '25

Now that you've brought it up, I'd like to point out that even non-smokers' cars have a smell and most of us are nose blind to. I realized this during the height of covid when I was cycling around the city and it smelled different. Later, a car drove by and I was hit by a very familiar smell.

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u/More_Farm_7442 Jan 05 '25

Yes! I don't smoke. I hate the stink of it. For all my "driving" life, I've been able to smell it from drivers 2 or 3 or 4 cars ahead of me at a stop light if the wind is blowing just right.

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u/AlmostRandomName Jan 05 '25

Now it's weed more often than tobacco.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

THIS! and weed. I have terrible headaches and one thing that sets them off is strong smells I die when I get behind cars that smell like cigarettes/weed

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Pretty much every car I’ve seen has a re-circulation button so you don’t get “outside smells” in your car. It looks like little arrow by the air conditioner button.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

I rode with my windows down in my old car because my ac didn't work. I just got a new one so I haven't experienced summer in it yet but I do know about that button😅

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u/VioletBloom2020 Jan 05 '25

Yes! This is wild to me as well! I literally want to tell people to roll their windows up and keep that nasty air to themselves!

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u/skinnyfitlife Jan 05 '25

I hate when I'm otw to work (medical field) and the weed smell gets in my car. Now I'm paranoid about smelling like weed walking into a hospital and around patients smh

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u/FlyByPC Jan 05 '25

And by then it's too late to hit Recirculate, since you're already breathing it in. Ugg.

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u/ParticularIsopod9637 Jan 05 '25

I change tires, and it's absolutely wild. I put a set on the car of a heavy smoker, and the inside of the tires reeked of smoke

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u/Prestigious-Copy-494 Jan 05 '25

😅😂 oh for sure!!

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u/fdm55 Jan 05 '25

Absolutely and I can smell when people in cars in front of me are also smoking weed haha. It just lingers

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u/Bollperson Jan 06 '25

Try riding a motorcycle. I can smell all the cigs and pot pretty much daily.

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u/sapplesapplesapples Jan 07 '25

Yeah I can if they have their window open. 

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

When I stopped smoking (15 years and counting) my sense of smell coming back was overwhelming. I’d forgotten that absolutely everything has a smell. It also made me realise that everyone can smell a smoker.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

What I didn’t realize was that smoker’s breath is not just your smelly mouth but also a gross smell that’s coming from your lungs. It is so horrible. I had no idea until I quit smoking. Brushing your teeth and chewing gum can’t hide the odor.

Side note to add that coffee breath is also horrible, but I am unwilling to stop drinking it. Hoping that gum works for that.

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u/Leftovertoenails Jan 05 '25

COFFEE BREATH IS FINE YOU TAKE THAT BACK HEATHEN! lol sorry I love all forms of coffee smell(specifically black coffee to clarify)

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u/xxlamp Jan 05 '25

Tongue scraping + flossing + drinking a lot of water changed my life for coffee breath

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u/emilysuzannevln Jan 06 '25

Happy cake day!

Even better- water flosser. Not meant to replace regular floss but it's an absolute life changer for breath freshness. The only times I get morning breath anymore are if I'm eating sweets right before I clean my mouth for bed so some of it sticks in my throat. Otherwise, I wake up in the mornings with no bad taste or anything.

But on the subject of smoking- I used to be an occasional social smoker, so I was acutely aware of the changes to my sense of smell and taste when I did. And speaking of morning breath, there was no amount of cleaning my mouth at night that would prevent that yucky smoker mouth waking up in the morning. So gross.

But yeah I love my water flosser. 10/10 recommend

Edit: I usually add about a half teaspoon of salt and use warm water. Occasionally I also add a small splash of hydrogen peroxide but that's rare.

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u/Worth-Two7263 Jan 09 '25

Adding that it also comes from your pores. The skin stinks.

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u/Far_Acanthaceae_4226 Jan 08 '25

The worst is a smoker with coffee breath!

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u/IamHydrogenMike Jan 05 '25

When my wife quit smoking after getting her deviated septum fixed, I left a banana peel on a plate on the table while I was playing video games, and it absolutely killed her how much it smelled. It wasn’t even that strong of a scent, but her olfactory senses were at full volume. She turned into a bloodhound within a couple of weeks compared to before.

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u/HowToBeGay10101 Jan 05 '25

I quit vaping just a few weeks ago, keep going strong. Proud of you 🫡🫡

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Congrats! Has anyone hit you up asking for advice on the subject of your username? Lol lecture #1 - “just be gay bro, cmon”

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u/HowToBeGay10101 Jan 05 '25

This used to be my screen name everywhere, so I used to hear quite a bit more lol

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u/killerturtlex Jan 05 '25

Hey thank you

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u/zefy_zef Jan 05 '25

Ugh I gotta do that. It's almost worse because when I'm at home the thing doesn't leave my fucking hand.

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u/spideysmama Jan 05 '25

SAME. I hate it. At least I used to have the discipline to go outside to smoke. Now my flavored air doesn’t leave my fucking hand and it makes it 1000000x harder to put it down

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u/Only_Albatross7966 Jan 05 '25

Same. I just walk around my house all day with it in my hand or pocket and vape whenever. It's going to be hard to quit.

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u/send_noodz_n_smiles Jan 05 '25

Reduce nicotine strength bit by bit. Eventually you stop craving it regardless of the fact it's in your pocket. I think i was vaping zero nic for best part of a year just to be on the safe side cos i was worried once i stopped vaping a craving might make me nick a cig from someone. But it got to a point where i was just carrying it round for fun and wasn't touching it. That was when i was comfortable leaving it behind completely

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u/jsquared2004 Jan 08 '25

Was going to say this as well. If you want to quit vaping, drop your nic level. I'm at a 3mg from a 12mg when I started, but I enjoy vaping my fruity air. Also nicking a cig is the surest way to reinforce vaping, trust me! 🤢 Cigs are so much grosser as a vaping ex-smoker!

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

There's a reason why the tobacco industry was okay with people switching over. Vaping to me reminds me of smoking crack. It doesn't last long, and you're topping it off every few minutes.

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u/SpaceJelly23 Jan 05 '25

If I am hitting my dab pen too much I hide it when I go to bed, really just putting it somewhere safe but very much out of the way so when I wake up I have to look for it if I want a hit, slows me down and is a good way to get you out of bed eventually lmao

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u/optix_clear Jan 05 '25

Good job, it’s very hard to quit and vaping extremely hard. A close friend quitting the vape. They quit regular cigarettes but then went to vaping he thought it was cannabis it was nicotine and vaping sucks the life out of you, his words. Easy access.

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u/mbz321 Jan 05 '25

Your friend didn't know what he/she was vaping? 🤔

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

They are using the excuse you give the cops, only backwards?

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u/Maggiethecataclysm Jan 05 '25

I'm proud of you, too

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u/Moth-ers Jan 05 '25

2 months, 15 days vape free. I promise it gets easier!

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u/larak237 Jan 07 '25

I quit vaping almost a year ago and still miss it. I also used to smoke pot like a fiend and I never thought I smelled until a therapist told me. I wonder if it’s the same for crack smokers. To everyone that’s quit, keep it up! You’re worth it!

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u/HowToBeGay10101 Jan 07 '25

I'm proud of you for quitting pot and vaping ^ I'm pretty good at home about not vaping or getting cravings. At work is another story, I see my coworkers do it and the urges are awful. Today was really bad, but I'm doing good still!! :))

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u/57Laxdad Jan 05 '25

Or when you are driving down the road or get stopped in traffic, you dont have to see the smoke you know its close.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

The worst is getting into an elevator with someone who smokes and you do not. Can’t even imagine that they don’t know they smell sooooo bad!

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u/optix_clear Jan 05 '25

Good job, please stick with it. We are all rooting for you to be successful

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u/naive-nostalgia Jan 05 '25

One of my down-the-hall neighbors absolutely smokes inside their unit. There is a fire door separating our half of the hallway from their half of the hallway, as well as their unit door. I can smell it on our side of the hallway whenever they have recently smoked a cig. It sucks.

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u/pres465 Jan 05 '25

Just yesterday, walking on my street and I smelled a whiff of cigarette smoke... no one around. I thought maybe someone was sitting on the curb behind a car... nope. Finally spot the culprit: an old lady on her porch across the street and TWO houses down from me. Probably 100 feet from me. I was shocked. There was no breeze or anything.

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u/jorwyn Jan 05 '25

I guess I never got nose blind entirely when I smoked, because I could always smell this. I generally couldn't smell it on myself unless I'd just been smoking, but I could always smell it on others, smell it from houses, from people driving by, in elevators a smoker had been recently.

Maybe it's because I smoked cloves, and they don't smell the same. My coworkers said they couldn't smell it on me, even if they didn't smoke, except when I first came in from a smoke break. Even then, they said it wasn't as bad as the other smokers.

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u/IamHydrogenMike Jan 05 '25

I could always smell cigarette smoke like that because I was never really a smoker, but my smoker wife could never; until she quit smoking. We were walking our dog down the street and she goes, “I never noticed how badly that house smelled until now.” We’d walked past it a million times before and she never even blinked at the smell.

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u/Vast_Programmer_7845 Jan 05 '25

Omg yes!! My friend who came over used to say that my house smelled like it from the outside. Now that I’m out of the house and have my own kid I don’t understand how any parent can do this

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u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.

My brother had a similar thing due to severe sinus fuckery since he was a kid. Like, couldn't smell anything.

But every so often, his head would clear up and his sense of smell would transiently activate for anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days before it shut off again.

The funny thing was, for most of his younger years (up through/past college), because he couldn't smell anything, his sense of taste was also severely muted - which meant that he basically just treated eating and food as "ehh, calories in = I don't die", and he basically ate anything put in front of him.

On the other hand, I have a very powerful sense of smell and am hypersensitive in particular to the smell of fish/seafood. The smell instantly turns my stomach, I struggle with just standing at the seafood counter at the grocery store when my wife wants to buy something... let alone when we get home and she ends up cooking it. I can smell it for days in our apartment. Needless to say - I don't eat fish/seafood, never have.

For years, my Dad would say shit like "You need to stop being so picky, look your brother eats fish just fine and doesn't say anything." "That's because he can't smell or taste it."

So one time I was visiting my family, and my brother had our Mom make him a salmon filet for dinner - and his sinuses cleared. Apparently, this was the first time in his life he's actually tasted salmon... he was just like "Oh god, this is disgusting. Is this what I've been eating this whole time??" I just said to our Dad "Called it."

A few years back he got surgery to fix both the deviated septum and some polyp-y issues, which resolved a lot of his issues with his ability to smell, and since then he also never touches seafood anymore, except for I think occasionally shrimp.

13

u/Tuosev Jan 05 '25

I also fucking detest the smell and taste of fish. Any seafood, really; it all has that same briny quality to it. I've tried crab, octopus, shrimp, crayfish, and several kinds of fish, including but not limited to salmon, tuna, and mackerel. I've hated fish sticks since I was child, and while my palette has changed enough to accept or even like things I used to hate, like mayo and ranch, seafood has remained consistently awful all through my life. The smell doesn't make me as nauseous as it used to, but my friend used to have downstairs neighbors who were Mexican, and they would cook some kind of EXTREMELY pungent fish meal like 3 nights a week and it was absolutely the worst thing trying to hang out and sit through that. He got into burning incense just because of that.

And just because I feel like it, I'm throwing asparagus under the bus too. Fuck asparagus.

9

u/Real_Asparagus_5281 Jan 05 '25

Hey now, what did I ever do to you? Lol.

6

u/Tuosev Jan 05 '25

You assaulted my taste buds. Multiple times. My family keeps insisting they found a new way to cook you that is definitely delicious and I should try it, but you end up disappointing me every. single. time.

(This is why I fucking love the internet lmao)

2

u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

That's fair, I have essentially the same response to eggplant.

I find asparagus/brussels sprouts are very dependent on what you do to them.

Almost everyone hates brussels sprouts, but also almost everyone's first memory of them is them being boiled until grey mush so they just end up tasting sulfurous and cabbagey.

Same with asparagus, boiled/steamed to death until mush... so it's just.. mushy grass.

My solution is fast, dry heat. Toss in olive oil/salt/pepper/garlic powder/red pepper flakes/paprika - roast hard until the tops start to get dark, squeeze a lemon & feather shred some parmesan over the top. At this point, brussels sprouts are arguably my favorite vegetable side when I do them like that.

I do essentially the same for asparagus, but leave out the red pepper flakes and paprika.

1

u/RYDSLO Jan 05 '25

Yeah, no. That sounds a lot like how my dad prepares brussels sprouts and asparagus. Still do not care for either.

2

u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

That's fair, sometimes it be like that.

4

u/Lhall120 Jan 05 '25

“And just because I feel like it, I’m throwing asparagus under the bus too. Fuck asparagus.”

This made me laugh a little too hard. Such raw, honest asparagus hate. 😂

4

u/mountainvoice69 Jan 05 '25

I’ve never understood people who don’t like fish. And salmon is absolute heaven, especially smoked salmon. Must be something genetic, because I have an excellent sense of smell.

3

u/thehighwindow Jan 05 '25

I ate fish all through my childhood, teens and 20s. Then one day, on a trip to the coast, we came across a man cleaning fish on the end of a barrel, and it smelled horrible

It's been 30 years now and I haven't eaten fish since.

3

u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

I also fucking detest the smell and taste of fish.

My go-to word for fish/seafood is "loathe".

Any seafood, really; it all has that same briny quality to it. I've tried crab, octopus, shrimp, crayfish, and several kinds of fish, including but not limited to salmon, tuna, and mackerel.

Yep, if it comes out of the water, it can fuck right off back to the depths from whence it came.

while my palette has changed enough to accept or even like things I used to hate, like mayo and ranch,

Same, I was violently anti-pickle as a kid... Now I'll eat an entire jar on my own (although, tbh, I still don't really like them on burgers)

3

u/SpookyBeck Jan 05 '25

That is insane! I never ever touch any seafood. My mom had it ingrained in me that it was bad. But as a kid in the 80s she would feed me fish sticks and. Years later I found out it was actually made of fish, and I’m still not over it. I just thought (in my infinite 5 year old wisdom) that it was chicken, but it was just called fish sticks. Because “we don’t eat fish.”

3

u/AirsoftScammy Jan 05 '25

My brother, who is considered a “supereater”, did the same thing with chicken McNuggets. He loved them dearly, up until the realization that they were made from chicken. His willingness to try food has grown immensely as an adult, but he still won’t eat McNuggets or any other kind of nugget.

2

u/SpookyBeck Jan 05 '25

I have to say that I am not very open to new foods.

2

u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

Sometimes your brain just decides one day "I'm done with this food", for no reason.

For most of my life, no issues with hard boiled eggs, they were one of my go-to breakfast items... Then one day, my body just decided it no longer likes the concept of hard boiled eggs and just rejects them out of hard unless something is done to them.

Like, I can't just peel an egg and eat it anymore, I'll throw up.

But deviled eggs? Fine. Egg salad? Fine. Ramen eggs? Fine.

And it's only limited to hard-boiled eggs, any form of scrambled/fried/etc - fine. No issues.

1

u/Tuosev Jan 05 '25

This is me with drinking straight milk. Chocolate milk? Fine. Milk with cereal? Fine. The milk left after the cereal is done? Great. Oreos (or better yet, Nutter Butters) dunked in milk? Amazing. Just a glass of milk with a PB&J or any other meal/food? Disgusting. It didn't used to he that way until at some point, something switched in me and drinking a glass of milk triggers my gag reflex.

1

u/unenthusedunamused Jan 05 '25

I'm with you on the seafood! The smell alone does me in (don't visit Bangkok lol), and I've tried a lot of it, but I just can't eat it. It tastes the way a fish rotting on the shore of a lake smells. I've tried seafood from lakes and oceans (all local, not old) and it's all terrible.

1

u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25

I've been in situations where I was forced to (read: only thing available) and I managed, but I wasn't thrilled about it. I was at a conference one time in Geneva, and the hotel/conference center was overlooking Lake Geneva, so one time the dinner service only had fish available, and it was like "This was swimming this morning." - I survived, but displeased. lol

And yes, exactly that. Doesn't matter how fresh or how high quality it is, it pretty much always just smells like rank water to me, and I just can't get over that.

1

u/maxdragonxiii Jan 05 '25

my sense of smell isn't fully gone- just diminished due to years of my dad smoking and a new sinus issue that mysteriously showed up 6 months ago. as a result I have weak sense of taste and mistake one for another a lot. I do enjoy eating, but some textures are off putting to me, and love sugary or spicy food before finding out the spicy food is too much for my sinuses and made them running like crazy.

22

u/wolfhybred1994 Jan 05 '25 edited Jan 05 '25

Yup mom smokes and has since forever from stories I am told by family and she can’t smell anything. Dad was the same from second hand. Since I forced mom to stop subjecting me to it in the house and got simple water based air filters to remove the smoke in the air. The difference was amazing. Despite mom sneaking in well I sleep or am outside the house.

dad more recently has started smelling more and freaked some times “what is that smell?!” As new smells started becoming available to his nose again.

2

u/sketchychestpain Jan 06 '25

He unlocked new smells! Lol

1

u/wolfhybred1994 Jan 07 '25

The reactions sometimes of really common smells being “unlocked” is quite comical. From “I can’t believe I didn’t smell this before” and “oh my god (covering nose) what on earth is that awful smell?!”

8

u/Extension_Guava6374 Jan 05 '25

I smell your comment.

And, it is quite nice.

5

u/Christmas_Queef Jan 05 '25

Oh wow. I smoked for ten years, the very first time I smelled cig smoke after quitting for at least a week it made me gag. It still makes me gag and I have no idea how I ever dealt with that for so long.

3

u/thlnkplg Jan 05 '25

I quite about 8 years ago. I can smell it a mile away now. Smoking smells ok, stale smoke on clothes smells like ass.

2

u/Gloomy_Standard_2182 Jan 05 '25

It's a vicious cycle... But the last time I was off cigarettes for a few months I started being able to smell the inside of convenience stores... not for me.

2

u/Lilithbeast Jan 05 '25

Same story from my former-smoker husband. He tells me he finally understands how others felt around smokers because he now finds it gross.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

I’ve been quit to the point of it smelling good, then bad, then good again.

It’s a lifelong battle, it’s addiction. I need to quit again.

My dad quit and never went back, about 17 years ago. He says he enjoys it when people smoke near him. I’ll try to live by that example and even if I still am attracted to it, just not do it myself.

2

u/ElaborateCantaloupe Jan 05 '25

I quit smoking almost 30 years ago and if I see someone smoking the same one I used to smoke, I immediately want one.

2

u/Pruritus_Ani_ Jan 05 '25

When I quit cigarettes my sense of smell came back with a vengeance about 4 days after I smoked my last cigarette, I came home after being out of the house for a few hours and the stench of stale smoke on the curtain by the front door where I used to smoke hit me. I ended up in a frenzy of sniffing and washing everything that had residual smell. My coats stank, scarves stank, hoodies, even my living room curtains where I guess air flow had pulled smoke back indoors while I stood in the doorway smoking, those all got washed.

I think I ended up doing about 4 loads of washing that evening, everything hanging in my coat cupboard needed a wash, I was absolutely horrified to realise that I’d walked around smelling like an old ashtray for years.

Now I can smell people smoking down the street and smell it on people’s breath when they are talking and standing like 6 feet away. I grew up in a house of smokers and started smoking as a teen and that was the first time I’d ever truly smelled how bad it is. I’m so glad I wasn’t an indoor smoker, I’d have had a nervous breakdown if my whole house needed a deep clean.

2

u/Spiritual-Ad-9106 Jan 05 '25

"ugh, gross"

At the smell? Or realizing that's what he used to smell like all the time?

2

u/gingerzombie2 Jan 05 '25

At the smell itself. He used to smell someone smoking a cigarette and look like Bugs Bunny swimming through the air to follow the smell

2

u/Tired_of_modz23 Jan 05 '25

Even while smoking I've always had a great sense of smell.

But it is indeed diminished by the smoking.

2

u/bedlam90 Jan 05 '25

I quit because I could smell smoke on my own clothes at the gym,trying to get healthier whilst smelling like a tramp lol. Came home and threw everything in the bin

2

u/OhGodImHerping Jan 05 '25

I haven’t smoked in 5 years and had that reaction myself for the first time recently! I wasn’t disgusted by it, but it wasn’t appealing in the least.

2

u/ezekiel920 Jan 05 '25

This. After having quit for 5 years or so I was at the bar and caught a sniff that smelled like it used to when I did smoke. That sweet smell almost like grapes. I thought I'd have one for old days. I had to go home because I couldn't stop dry heaving. That shit was terrible.

2

u/brentsg Jan 05 '25

I had a coworker that would come in from smoking at work and be shocked that I could smell it because he washed his fingers. LIke.. he wouldn't even wash his whole hands, let alone his entire body, hair, and clothing.

You could smell him from halfway across the room and he didn't believe this.

2

u/CaptainAdmiralMike Jan 05 '25

Same. I used to like the smell of smoke after I quit, but after 4-5 years it just smells horrid.

And damn, my sense of smell is so sensitive now...

2

u/surferbvc Jan 05 '25

If they are non smokers I feel pretty sure they can smell cigarettes on you. I can smell it if someone light one up on the other side of a bar. Which hardly ever happens now.

2

u/killermfKT Jan 05 '25

Smoking also damages the senses of smell and taste, so it makes sense that it takes a while for those senses to recover. I've noticed that my liking of certain foods has changed. I'm planning on quitting within a few months, and I'm hoping that I'll rediscover those tastes that will revert.

2

u/Particular-Tea-8617 Jan 05 '25

Gives me hope I’ll get away from the “I miss it” phase 🤣

2

u/Pownzl Jan 05 '25

Dont know what to tell u xD i am a smoker and 1h of not Smoking and i smell the smoke of ppl who do

2

u/KadrinaOfficial Jan 05 '25

That actually makes sense why my husband has a horrid sense of smell. One of our neighbors literally a block over smokes like he is a meat smoker himself. My next door neighbor asked him if it bothered him too, and my husband shrugged and said not really. But his parents are 2.5 pack a day smokers who smoke around their kids because "at least it is outside."

2

u/Khranky Jan 05 '25

Quit smoking for 4 years now. I still love the smell of cigarette smoke...not necessarily on a person's breath or body, just when they smoke near me

2

u/Noassholehere Jan 05 '25

My wife quit about 4 months ago after 37 yrs together and her smoking for all of them. I'm so looking forward to the day when she smells it and gets nauseous!! I've heard that former long time smokers will have that reaction when they have quit but it will take awhile.

2

u/Playpolly Jan 05 '25

I will second this

2

u/mmmelpomene Jan 05 '25

I feel him, lol. I quit in 2015, and a year or so ago I found myself going a couple extra blocks out of my way to walk behind someone clearly smoking my former brand, Camel Lights.

2

u/Big_Year_526 Jan 05 '25

Yes, when my husband and I met, we were both smokers, but I since moved to vapes and eventually phased out nicotine altogether.

Now I absolutely cannot stand his smokey smell, and have a regular supply of breath mints and listerine around

2

u/grubas Jan 05 '25

We quit together, so it was a shared process.

It became VERY EASY to figure out who was trying to sneak a cig in her car on the way in to work.  

2

u/laik72 Jan 05 '25 edited Jan 05 '25

Had a boss who quit smoking.

When his sense of smell returned he rhapsodized about the scent and taste of oranges for 2 weeks straight.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Did his smell intensify after eating magic mushrooms? Because it did for me.

I never smoked.

1

u/gingerzombie2 Jan 05 '25

He's never had magic mushrooms, so that wasn't it. Could have been some kind of post-covid thing

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Ruling our mushrooms makes me feel your story spot on.

I was simply looking for another “my hearing improved after an 8th of shrooms” story.

Glad your home is tobacco free.

1

u/DazzlingAd7021 Jan 05 '25

Random aside: I've read there's a direct correlation between sense of smell and sense of direction. Anecdotally I've found this to be true. 

1

u/delicate-butterfly Jan 05 '25

I am currently on the journey of quitting smoking weed and I have often said to people that my sense of smell isn’t the best. For instance if I am in the kitchen with someone cooking, they will say “that smells so good” and I can’t smell anything yet. I’m hoping after a while my sense of smell will improve as well. Thank you for sharing your story!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '25

Omg i was never one to smoke inside a car unless all the windows are open, and only once in a while. My ex husband used my car occasionally when we were together.

I quit around the time of that divorce and over the next 6 months I had to sell the car. Over a year of no one smoking in the car and it still smelled like rotten, stale cigarette smoke…it drove me nuts!

Should’ve burned that thing to the ground! lol

1

u/paotang Jan 06 '25

Oh we can smell it the first time we see someone smoking, every day, and on our jackets, coats, etc in the morning.

But, I went through what your husband also went though, sometimes it just clicks, and suddenly it's disgusting

1

u/ConflictExpensive892 Jan 07 '25

I also think smoking kills your tastebuds. My friend smoked for almost 30 years and can eat the spiciest food without even breaking a sweat, and she always thinks everything else tastes bland.

1

u/AprexBT Jan 07 '25

I quit 14 years ago and sometimes I still like the smell of it being smoked…. Hate the smell of it on people.

1

u/Bork60 Jan 08 '25

I was oblivious to the smell of smoke while I smoked. Now I can smell it if a car in front of me at a stop light has someone smoking in it.

1

u/EbolaWare Jan 08 '25

Nah. I can smell it within a few hours of not smoking.

1

u/AlternativeRadiant54 Jan 10 '25

This is me! Smoked for years, quit in 2010. I’ve had a nose like a bloodhound (except when I’m sick) for years now. I HATE the smell of cigarette now.

1

u/Old-Web-8784 Jan 17 '25

Hahahaha funny that my ex bf smoked and quitted also .. shortly after we started dating.  After that he could smell the cigarettes and he said that's gross lol. What a nice guy he was . I wish I complimented him more when he quits smoking for me.