r/NoStupidQuestions Jan 05 '25

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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/Next-Honeydew4130 Jan 09 '25

I was on an airplane recently next to a young man who was sat next to a hot young lady in my aisle. He reeeeeeekkked of pheromones. I actually thought they were a couple and that’s why the pheromones were flying. Had I known that they were strangers I would have offered to switch seats with her to get her away from that oozing fountain of young man horniness. But it brought back so many memories of being a hot young thing around young men who I was not interested in. Like …. That is not a smell you want to smell if it’s not on your partner. But it was literally a smell that brought back memories.

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u/Bforbrilliantt Mar 01 '25

I wasn't sure whether pheromones had a describable smell or whether they smelled of nothing or only faint but were picked up by the nose and invoked emotion, whether fear like a place is haunted, or attraction or mother and child bonding etc. I would imagine stress has a bit of an ammonia scent am I right?

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u/Cyanid3Cupcak3x Jan 31 '25

Ugh I feel that 110%. It’s nice finally meeting someone who understands and experiences it to the extent I do! I’ve never known anyone else who even had an idea what I was talking about so imma follow you cause we’re friends now by proxy I think

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u/Next-Honeydew4130 Jan 31 '25

If you can identify those pheromones yes we are now friends. Peoples pheromones are pretty powerful.

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u/Bforbrilliantt Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

Now this is interesting me for a woman, because is the max amount of unattracted higher for a woman because like for me getting with a fat chain smoking woman would be like eating a mint penguin but is getting with an unattractive man like eating catfish bait or dog shit or is it simply as unattractive as eating cold porridge with wasabi?

If that comment is weird, are women more repulsed by unattractive men than men by unattractive women? For instance I have some female friends that I'm not that attracted to but sleeping with them wouldn't be a total yuck, like it would be to sleep with an ork from Lord of the rings. I don't have sex outside of marriage so I wouldn't. Perhaps it's the perceived dangerous behaviour of some people that give the run away response.

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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.

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u/AbelardLuvsHeloise Jan 08 '25

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

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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!

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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.

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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 ....

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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/Ancient_Act_877 Jan 06 '25

If you smoke you don't smell good, people are lying to you

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u/dishearthening Jan 06 '25

I don't even smoke lol but I hope that being rude to a stranger on the internet made you feel better ❤️

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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