Scents

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I was wondering, is anybody else actually attracted to strong scents, because they open up a whole well of emotion?

To me, scent is the only part of my external image (if I could call it so) that really matters to me - I don't care what I'm wearing as long as it's soft, comfortable and tidy enough, jewellery seems like too much trouble and I can't stand cosmetics, for the most part, but perfume is very important. I find myself obsessing over various scents; each gives me strong emotional connotations and has its own color, and seems to touch down on something essential in me.

When I was 11-14 I was obsessed with incense. I made my grandfather take me to various Indian stores when we went for walks, and to buy lots of different incense sticks or cones. It was the only thing I could think of spending money on, for a while. I had a drawerful of incense which I kept very vigorously from drying up - it was something I was concerned about, that it might dry up and lose its scent - taking time to seal up the packets with scotch tape and close the drawer tightly every time. Of course I wasn't managing to use it all up, but this didn't matter as long as I had the different scents and could feel them at any time, if I wanted to. I would burn a bit of a particular incense every day; it was almost a ritual of sorts. Every scent had a distinct color and often a bit of a special taste as well, and seemed to trigger a specific mood, which I enjoyed immensely. My parents weren't happy - they thought I could harm my health this way, and my mother seems to have also thought that incense was a type of psychoactive drug.

I eventually stopped using incense (though I still have a boxful lying around) and began wearing very strong, ether oil-based Indian scents which some people find too crude - patchouli, sandalwood oil, cannabis oil, rose oil, mixed perfumes. I used to put on a real lot of the perfume, so that I must have been spreading a cloud of scent as I went. A friend of mine used to joke that I "stank" and it was impossible to get close to me. My mother was disgusted because she found these scents ugly and unacceptable in Western society (I still don't get why, many people wear them), and kept telling me off. When I was in my first year studying English, we had this phonetics tutor who used to say that there's no need to check whether I am present in class, because you can tell by the scent.

Now I still like some of the Indian scents, including the four essential oils I've mentioned, but I've shifted to wearing more traditional perfumes (my favorites for now being Jean Luc Amsler's Privet, Versace's Cristal Noir, Estee Lauder's Beyond Paradise and Eclat D'Arpege, along with a few others). I still like thick, musky, Oriental scents or inebriatingly sweet floral ones best, and the scent, in itself, has as much of a special meaning to me as it always has (if not more).

I could see how one could find strong scents disturbing and avoid any kind of perfume or scented soaps etc. altogether, or but it seems that some autistic people are attracted to scents in a similar way. Iris Johansson (not the writer, the other one, author of "A special childhood") writes that she was drawn towards strong scents, because they triggered different feelings, - she likens it to having a carnival open up inside where you can take all sorts of rides, - and says they caused a kind of pain, which was better than the usual emptiness (she was attracted to strong, shattering sounds for the same reason - the pain they caused pulled her out of the emptiness and isolation for a while; she describes them as ripping through herself and through the farbic of the world, making it different, more understandable for a few brief moments). Temple Grandin also seems to have been attracted to scents as a child. Is there anybody else like this?

I can see it now .... HOMER SIMPSON .... Hmmm donuts.

yeah of course, I also 'ingrained' scents that spawn feelings, like popieseed bagels make me feel all warm , because my family always had them at easter.

I like scents, but most perfumes have a base scent that destroys anything else that might be there, as far as I am concerned. I like natural and some baked scents best. Other than that, what is wrong with just a CLEAN scent?

Steve

I've worn Jovan Musk Oil for Women since I was a teenager, but around four years ago, they screwed with the formula, adding more oil than musk, and my once comforting, long-lasting, signature scent is now barely perceptible, lasts only an hour or so. I've written the company expressing my displeasure, but never heard back.

Even though I still wear it (can't stand other scents, and other brands of musk smell like ass), I've felt "wrong," like things are out of place...If that makes any sense. I've noticed that I'm more easily overwhelmed, agitated without my former musk. I'm becoming upset just thinking about it!

I hate most perfumes and colognes. They are just too much for me. They are used as a poor attempt to cover up body odor. I'd rather deal with my cats' litterboxes.

I have a strong attachment to scents. I can still remember how my father smelt even though he died 7 years ago! I kept a bottle of my grandmother's perfume just so I can remember her.

I like strong smelling foods like orange chicken and jerk chicken. If the food does not have an appealing smell, I won't go near it. There are some scents that make me want to puke though- like popcorn, sausage or celery.

Smell is the sense that is most strongly attached to memory, apparently for everyone, not just autistics. But maybe it’s stronger for us, who knows. I do notice a lot of scents, and at times it drives me crazy.

Some scents, like heavy chemicals (tar comes to mind), harsh perfumes, and cigarette smoke, actually make me gag. I practically feel my nose reverse gears, if that makes any sense. Other scents I love, and I will purposefully seek them out (when I was a kid I used to rummage through the cupboards to find my dad’s coffee grinds, just so I could have a whiff. Actually, I still do this, only now it’s my own coffee).

However, I can’t stand anything that lingers. All those perfume scientists say that the human nose adjusts to scents, so that after 20-30 minutes you won’t notice it anymore. But that is so not the case with me. I can’t wear perfume because I will smell it all day, and I can’t stand smelling the same lingering smell for hours at a time. Even pleasant ones.

i like me some smells, the laundry matt has some of my favorite aromas

I find some scents very attractive and I can identify people and places by scent alone sometimes. I also find some typical scents to be horrid. Cigarettes, beer, sometimes boiled shrimp, others I'm sure. I'm not thinking very clearly right now.

I find different scents can change my moods and how I feel...for example some scents make me feel warm, some scared...I hate the smell of old books, the yellowing brown paper in the books...that makes me feel really creepy. Yet I love the smell of BBQ.

Although hypersensitive to smells, there are some good things about it. One time I quit smoking by putting a very nice-smelling lotion on my hands and smelling the nice smell instead of the burned tobacco smell...

I cook by smell. It works too - I never taste to see what I need to add, I just put my head over the pot and breathe.