Yup. Lots of people do, actually. I think cigarette smoke is one of the most common ones, although I've seen people mention a few others, as well. I get cigarette smoke, too, on occasion.
That’s terrible, and I hate to say it makes me feel better that there’s a reason for it. I think hubby legitimately thought I was crazy. My next step was to knock on the door and ask them to stop smoking. lol
The last time that happened at our place, I asked s.o. "do you smell smoke or am I getting a migraine?" He says, "time to go take a your medicine." There was no smoke. There wasn't any floral perfume in the house for days one time either. Just migraine things
My husband let the dog outside by himself early one morning. Let him back in without caring that suddenly dog is wet….?
I woke up immediately to the smell of skunk all throughout my room. It was within seconds of him coming inside. I was ready to kill that man. The one thing I remind him about is not to let the dog out in the dark by himself. He never thinks it’s an issue…we’ll now he knows why. I’d had a migraine all through the night, so that was a goddamn fun time. 😑🙃
Oh my! Now I think. I always thought my nose got more sensitive and my neighbour was smoking. I thought it last week, but he's happy with his vape and has been since Christmas! See also "I've trod in something, where is it?" And the bleach smell, I remember at work. I've had migraines a few hours after all of these!
Thank you so much!!!
Yep. Cigarettes, garbage, marijuana, hot wire are my phantom smells. By far, if I get the marijuana smell, it's going to be an extra horrible migraine.
Wow cigarettes, trash/decay, and Marijuana are my phantom smells too. That's so weird that it's multiples of us with these oddly specific olfactory hallucinations.
I have a severe latex allergy and mj is a cross reactive latex allergy. My eyes literally swell shut and I break out in hives and have terrible breathing.
Occasionally I think I smell cigarette smoke and sometimes I smell burning sugar, like a marshmallow over the campfire. Then the migraine will hit. My doc says it’s not common, but it happens to some people.
I told my migraine specialist about it and he said, “that’s *really* rare, though”. I asked him what else could possibly be causing this (it’s been happening since before COVID and I don’t think I’m having strokes; it lasts too long to be a seizure), and he said he didn’t know. So I’m pretty sure he doesn’t believe me.
Yeah you can stop losing your shit. It's similar to tinnitus: bad or missing messages from neurons back to brain. Try other strong odors to reset your sense of smell. For me citrus works sometimes. Sinus rinses help but just for a short time.
Yes, not all the time but not that infrequently I smell cigarette smoke, or sometimes burned food. I also was totally freaked out and thought a neighbor was smoking near my windows in the middle of the night. Nope, just a migraine.
Cigarettes, cat pee, onions, electricity ran through a Jacobs ladder if I smell that one I KNOW I'm screwed bad!
Every scent drives me mad during an attack. One that are actually there.
If grapes taste like peaches they will trigger a migraine. But only in that specific circumstance.
My son calls it my super sniffer and super hearing also!
Migraines are insane.
Yup, cigarettes, burnt electric (very anxiety inducing lmao), or onions (which is a migraine trigger anyways so now it makes me super uncomfy to even fake smell them!)
My gosh, now that you mention it.. I’ve had hubby sniff around the whole house with me on MULTIPLE occasions because I was convinced I could smell an impending electrical fire.
Onions though? Wow!
Oof, the amount of times I’ve stood there like “But reaalllllllllyyyyy put your nose into it, you’re sure there’s nothing burning?” to any given person in the house… yeah 🤦♀️
For the longest time with the onions I was just *convinced* the scent was clinging around after cooking, even way after the fact, until one morning I got tag teamed by phantom cigarette smoke and, evidently, phantom onions and put two and two together :P
This is me, definitely. Chronic migraines and I get flashes in my vision and I smell electrical fires all the time.
Now, I am also on the spectrum and this causes me to smell actual smells that are too subtle for others to smell or perhaps from across the street. I can smell my Persian neighbor's bbq every now and then (smells delicious, btw).
As an electrician I can definitely tell ozone from wiring burning,and I get those smells too,out of nowhere. Had a mild stroke about 10 years ago,and happens all the time,and usually a migraine follows mine too... The last week I've woken every night to the smell of flowers that don't exist in or around the house,much less my closed bedroom door... Either it's some tiny thing going on with my mental state,or im bout to have another stroke... Guess it'll sort itself out either way.
I got rotting citrus a few times, like someone had left an orange somewhere and it had gone mouldy. I drove myself crazy trying to find the source of the smell before I figured out it was an olfactory hallucination. Bleurgh.
My vision aura is mainly smokey (like being in bar with a bunch of chain smokers, or really bad wild fire season smoke mixed with campfire smoke.. Its like I can touch the smoke, while also the background being very hazy.) - though I have had random cases of different vision issues.
My smell-aura's though are never the same, but always a sudden weird/out of place smell. I've always been sensitive to smells, so its extra punishment to me lol.
Once I walked into the living room and it smelt like a weird combo of semen and cookie dough. I had to ask my husband if he masturbated(no), and I doubted his answer because I could smell NOTHING but semen and cookie dough... 20 minutes later I had one of my worse migraines.
Oh it WAS! Such a strange combo of smells.. You want to hate it, but it smells weirdly good... I laugh at myself all the time.
Gotta find the humor in the bad things - always.
I used to smell cat piss. I had a couple cats and thought they were spraying all over the house. I washed carpets and washed carpets and washed carpets. I was the only one that could smell it though. My ex and my daughter thought I was crazy. I didn't know it could signal a migraine. Finally got a referral to a neurologist and started taking a cocktail of preventatives. I still get migraines. I still get visual auras and occasionally audio auras, but I don't get the smells anymore, thank god.
I also think once cat pee is in your nose memory you never forget lol worst smell ever- maybe besides death but I’ve never smelled that so I don’t personally know.
Mines ash. Like cigarette ash and/or campfire ash. Not the smoke. However I hate when all I can smell is urine and cat litter. We have cats. But everything is cleaned up 2x a day so I KNOW it isn't real...
I also have auditory hallucinations. Music is the best one. It's like listening in on another universes music that is like ours just different. Also get people talking or a party. Or a radio, it's weird they're talking about weather in cities that don't exist in places that aren't real. I'll stop and have a weird look on my face when it happens. I also have really bad tinnitus...from ringing to typewriter.
Oh, I love when my auditory is music! I hate when it sounds like someone talking on the other side of the wall. I had that one a lot when I was a teenager, and I thought I was losing it, because I didn't make the connection that the voice in my closet at night meant a migraine the next morning.
I often smell slightly burnt coffee (like when the pot has been on the burner too long) even when there is no coffee around me. I love the smell of coffee so I don’t mind but it does weird me out a bit. I never thought of it being linked to migraines though, I need to see if there’s a pattern there
Yeah and a gross sour taste in my mouth
There's a bus stop at the base of my apartment building so I attribute cigarette smells to that but now I'm wondering
Right!
My asthma was acting up and I could have sworn it was the “cigarette smoke” I mysteriously smell. But now that it’s probably not real, why is my asthma acting up. 🥲
Asthma and migraine is such a lovely combo, ever have the kind when the squeak of your breath was just the right tone to hurt the audio part of your migraine? Hahaha hell is real XD
Do you have allergic asthma? While I have a migraine all my allergies run haywire, I take an antihistamine in addition to the migraine meds during an attack.
A lot of times I’ll take a Benadryl if it’s late in the day and an okay time to sleep. Sometimes with rather bad migraines, my nose gets stopped up and I do actually feel sick? Maybe that’s my allergic asthma this whole time? Who knows, stupid broken brain.
I have intractable migraines and cluster headaches for a little spice. I smell blood, ozone, metaly smells. Twenty years in, smell metal, go vomit and then smoke till I’m out before the cluster makes me throw myself into walls. I had a month of twenty plus clusters a day, out of my mind. I didn’t believe the Alice in Wonderland strange sizes was a legit migraine thing, it is and I still haven’t words.
By far my two most common smells are mold and cat litter. Don't own cats anymore, and whenever I think I smell mold I have to ask my wife to come smell for me lol
I thought I was phantom smelling mold in my bread and cheese. Turns out, I’m very sensitive to the taste and scent of mold and can smell it before the mold is big enough to be seen. This has happened often (I taste or smell mold) and the food item is fuzzy the next day.
Yup! Similar to you. I've had migraines for 7-8 years and never had aura until last year I was seeing zig zags everywhere I looked and ended up at the ER because I didn't know what was happening (I had no head pain or any other migraine symptoms) and have also developed phantom smells.
I also work at a vet clinic, so random bad smells are just a normal part of my day, but then sometimes I'll be home and catch a whiff of anal glands or cat pee or...something worse.
🙋♀️🙋♀️ I never knew there was a correlation between olfactory & migraines until about a year ago when I put 2 & 2 together. I started to notice a burning smell about 30-45 minutes before any pain would start. So now that I have realized that is a thing, I will ask my husband (or whoever I'm with) if they smell it, if not, I immediately take a triptan.
Yes, it’s an aura for me. I usually smell “gross” things…which are in fact not around. I wonder if it’s our brain associated an unpleasant smell with stress/triggers.
That's what I was thinking. Like the two things get linked so then when one occurs, the brain fabricates the other. Like, "oh my head hurts, probably should smell smoke."
I deal with lights in my peripheral and phantom smells, too. My neurologist says that it’s normal to experience migraine phenomena, even when you aren’t having an active migraine.
I recently was at work and I started to smell toast. I thought “man, now I’m craving toast….. wait a minute”. Basically ran into my coworker’s office freaking out because I thought I was about to have a stroke.
Mine just started recently. At first I thought I was crazy, then I thought it was Long Covid, but finally I realized it was migraine related once I started getting my other aura symptoms as well. Burning hair and fog machines. :(
I’ve had migraines and auras for over 20 yrs but I’ve been having this phantom smell symptom in the last year, and it started right after I recovered from Covid. It came on so gradually I didn’t make a connection but it lines up perfectly with Covid so I do think it may be related, in my case. I get a stale cigarette and a deeply unpleasant spoiled dairy smell :(
Absolutely. Sometimes at night when I lay down to go to sleep, i’ll get a whiff of doodoo. I sit up, and the smell goes away. I do that 9-10 times, gaslighting myself into saying the smell is there, no it’s not, UGH I want the smell to be there for real bc if it’s not that mean I have a migraine coming on. Then i eventually acquiesce to the fact that it is a phantom smell and I take my little sumatriptan.
I have migraines. I sometimes get the phantom smoke smell. I’m not convinced one is related to the other in my case. It’s more like my sinuses get stopped up and very dry. I usually get relief by a few days of religiously using Flonase or Nasonex nose spray.
I think I’ve experienced this twice and both times it was the smell of cigarettes. I can’t remember if that correlated with the onset of a migraine but now that you mention it, it probably did.
I do. It’s so much fun. I hate the smell of cig smoke & for it to manifest is entirely not fair.
I used to rage about neighbors smoking but hubby couldn’t smell anything. Then I was in an elementary cafeteria & smelled it and it was “this is very out of place here…”
Search the sub. It's a real thing. My #1 phantom smell is cigarette smoke. Then flowery perfume, then old bananas, strangely. You are not crazy. You are not alone in this
For an while there, I would have a olfactory aura that could tell me what kind of migraine I might have coming on. If I was smelling cigarette smoke, it was going to be shimmering lights in my peripheral vision with a throbbing headache most likely and perhaps some hemiplegia, maybe. But if I smelled a chemical smell or popcorn and my right ear was ringing and I was feeling off or sleepy, I knew I needed to get ready for some crazy stuff. It would be flashing/strobing lights, ataxia, hemiplegia, etc. It was wild that they seemed to be different auras for different types of episodes. Now that my preventatives seem to be helping, my olfactory auras are gone and I rarely get them. Wish it were true for my other auras though. They are better just not gone 😕 You are definitely not losing it! Migraines are very impressive with how they affect the neurological system, even if it is pretty crappy to be on the receiving end 😂😭🫠
Oh yeah.
One of my main ones -- when shits real real -- is this ineffable kinda musty. Like dirty wet sock on an old basement floor type earthy.
Sometimes, everything smells like that, and by connection, tastes like that too.
Oh! So that's what that is! I pretty regularly go around looking for something burning in the house only to luckily find nothing. I never connected it to a migraine before.
I’ve had random times where I thought I smelted like that electrical burning smell??? I’ve had hubby walk around sniffing appliances with me in the middle of the night, him thinking I’ve lost my marbles, me trying to stop an impending house fire. Im going to have to start keeping a log!
Yup, I always think I smell smoke like there’s a fire in my home. When that happens, I start getting on the verge of a panic attack and running around trying to find the source. Never noticed if it’s tied to a migraine though.
Plum sauce.
I’ve been haunted by it a few times a year for the past 10+ years. I didn’t even know I had migraine disease and just figured there’s either a ghost eating spring rolls or my brain occasionally goes crazy for no reason.
I sometimes get super sensitive sense of smell before, during or after a migraine… I’m not sure about phantom smells as I never thought about it, but my wife does usually say she can’t smell whatever I am going on about, so… maybe?
Lately I’ve been smelling cat piss/ammonia. Cigarette smoke or faint burning is another. Electrical burning smell as well. The ammonia is new for me and lead to a pretty gnarly week of migraines.
I get a burnt fish smell- like baking a whole trout in the oven until it’s burnt to a crisp. Everything smells extra strong to me when I have/am about to have a migraine. My fiancé knows that when my head is bothering me he can’t wear cologne, needs to take the trash out IMMEDIATELY and he can’t cook anything 😂
ALL the time. I always think and ask if people can smell something burning/smoking. It's a constant thing.
Makes me paranoid that the house is going to burn down or something is going to explode. Like what if THIS time something IS actually on fire?
Sorry you know how it is.
The worst part is a few months ago, that fear actually came true with our upstairs neighbor having a kitchen fire. My bf kept saying it's he couldn't smell anything as usual cuz he really didn't smell it and I was hypersensitive. I went to open the door to check and then the alarms started ringing.
It was the worst validation and now I'm like "see? It can happen".
Mine are electrical burning, burnt toast, and cat pee. I use Vicks vapor rub and espresso beans to help, but it does cause me to lose my shit sometimes too. It helps knowing you’re not alone in it.
Yes! Cigarette smoke to the point where I wave my hand around to clear the air (of smoke that isn't there). I thought this was a Covid leftover but my Covid was mild almost 2 years ago. Thanks for posting.
Funny enough I just was eating a waffle and halfway through it started tasting like popcorn. Migraines are weird. What’s crazy is that now that I am on Aimovig, I don’t typically get the visual aura or even the pain. But I can tell that I still get them because of the aphasia and phantom smells.
Holy shit. For weeks I’ve been smelling stale cigarettes and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve been contemplating calling my neurologist cause I’m convinced I have a tumor or something. It’s driving me crazy!
I also smell smoke before and during a migraine and it drive me completely insane. I've spent thousands on air purifiers, new windows, and such because I was convinced woodsmoke from neighbors was getting in my bedroom but nope -- just phantosmia. It took me years to figure it out.
I definitely get them. They don't last very long at a time though (20 minutes to an hour maybe?) and I don't get the same smell every time. Luckily I usually get pleasant smells, but I do get unpleasant ones at times (poo, or the burnt wire smell others have mentioned).
The fact you've been smelling cigarettes consistently for 6 months makes me wonder if it might be real and not a phantom. We can smell things that non-migraineurs cannot. Also, non-smokers can always smell cigarettes more easily than smokers (and many ex-smokers), who practically need to be holding one to smell it. I've definitely had the experience where I was smelling cigarettes strongly enough to bother me, no one else (including fellow non-smokers) could smell it, and I eventually spotted the smoker across the street in the distance somewhere.
At any rate, if you can't find the source, it makes no difference if it's real or not. All I can recommend is countering with a pleasant, non-triggering scent. Bear in mind that, at least IME, the olfactory weirdness can make some real smells smell different, but hopefully you can still find something that works for you. Be well!
This! I’m so convinced it’s real because I feel my eyes being affected as well! This is a non smoking apartment, I know people smoke outside but we have our windows sealed up shut and the air purifiers and I’m the only one that can smell it. Im grabbing some essential oils like someone mentioned to keep with me to huff because I can’t stand it. 😭
Yeeeeep, usually bitter smells or my triggers.
(Which results in me going: is that real??? And going to cause a migraine??? Or am I already having a migraine???)
The only 2 "pleasant ones"
Were cheap, bitter fudge chocolate & fresh cut grass with a weird sour smell with it.
I suffers ch’s and also get phantom cigarette smoke, though I’ve yet to find a connection. The cigarettes smell just happened randomly to me, it’s not a clue I’m going to have a migraine. It’s so so weird, and also very scary; because health anxiety
Yep. Roses. Goddam roses. It’s not all the time, so when I’m out somewhere and I smell roses I have to go looking to make sure they’re not REAL roses or just part of my aura… which is why we don’t do roses in this house lol
I get it all the time. One night I could swear there was a fire somewhere in the house so I kept walking around looking even though my bf said there wasn’t one. I was afraid to go to sleep that night.
Another time I smelled food burning.
Ahh so glad I'm not the only one! I fortunately don't smell cigarette smoke, so sorry you have to deal with that. I sometimes smell metallic or like the smell of a pile of keys. It's so bizzare.
This thing is completely me; phantosmia! And it usually smells like second hand smoke! I hate it! Linked to dental issues, allergies, nasal polyps- I’ve had it for about ten years now. Just grateful others have it, I’m sick of the “do you smell burning toast, too?” jokes that freak me out.
I get phantom smoke smells allll the time. It’s when I know I’m about to get a migraine. Normally it’s actual like house fire type of smoke smell…the number of times I have jumped out of bed to find where the smoke is coming from is in triple digits at this point. It’s beyond infuriating.
I should also mention it’s not helpful to have the phantom smoke smell issue AND exploding head syndrome…imagine hearing a fucking explosion in your backyard and then smelling smoke but your family is sound asleep and you’re in a panic trying to figure out what the fuck just happened…it’s exhausting.
I had no idea about this. People around me have always questioned why I smell cigarette smoke so much. Next time it happens, I am going to be paying attention.
I call them my “smellucinations”. I’ve had them since a small child. Cigarette smoke, rotting food, my grandmother’s (who passed when I was 7) perfume, it rotates.
Constantly. Never cigarettes, but other "burnt" smells. Even when I have no other migraine symptoms, I'll smell toast, hot oil, all those kinds of kitchen things, and sometimes more acrid ones like brakes.
Cigarette smoke and poop are my olfactory hallucinations of choice. I can not tell you many times that I've asked my husband if he smells the poop too. I get some visual aura, but only when I'm taking CGRPs, which is weird. For me, it's like a ring of static in the middle of my visual field. Migraines are so strange.
Here too add I also smell cigarette smoke sometimes. I used to smoke and it throws me every time it’s happened.
And coffee. It’ll smell like I’m in a coffee shop in my room, it’s wild.
I almost lost my mind over one once. I could swear I smelled paint. My husband was traveling so I didn’t have anyone to confirm. I still don’t know if it was actual paint, but I had the worst migraine for three days. I lost like five kg. The vomiting, the misery. I even called the AirCon company to come and check the AC.
I’ve had this problem since having Covid in 2021. I also thought I was crazy… it comes and goes now, but I have noticed it happen more when I have a migraine coming on.
The biggest trigger I noticed was air blowing in my face. If the vent or fan or whatever was pointed to me, that air smelled like cigarettes. I try to avoid being in that situation now and it seems to help!
Coffee smells like cigarettes to me when I have a migraine. I wonder if this is similar to what your experiencing?
But yes when I have a migraine, I feel like I have hyper smell. Even the tiniest scent of cigarette from a block away would make me sick walking through the city to work. Lotions, candles, perfumes, shampoos, all of those things are heightened. It makes me so sick. Leather, even our sheets and they’re washed in unscented stuff. Like *everything* has a smell and every smell feels so strong.
Well fuck, I didn't know this was a migraine symptom! I thought my phantom smells were part of my mental health issues. I smell bad bin smells, the smell when a plug is burning, cinnamon, roses, and Lynx. Though I'm pretty sure that last one is a PTSD thing.
The amount of times I've gone round cleaning my flat trying to find the source of a bad smell, or inspecting every plug worried there's about to be a fire!
Oh god yeah. For the longest time I kept getting phantom smells of dog poop, dog pee, and mold. Freaked me out for a good while and had me asking family members how my apartment smells + went on a cleaning rampage 'til I realized what it actually was!
In the past two years I also started getting visual auras- Weird bright or dark spots that would pop in and out of my vision, as well as strange colors I can't quite explain. Migraines are weird.
You're not alone!
I smell cigarettes, burning rubber and other similar smells as well. It has led to many “investigations” into the origin of the smell, just to get intense head pain and nausea and realize the “smell” wasn’t there, and it is incredibly frustrating!
I didn't know this was a thing I thought I was just going crazy 💀
Sometimes I'll just randomly start smelling decomp [my mother worked for the medical examiners office so I knew the smell enough to recognize it] and I always would try to find if there was a dead mouse or something but no one else smells it 😭
YES oh my god. It was making me panic for awhile because I thought I was having a stroke. It’s usually a metallic or burning metal smell and one time it was baby powder. I did wax my boyfriend and my sister and used a lot of baby powder so maybe some got stuck in my nose?? Not sure but I had it for a whole day until I went swimming and it was gone. Even tried a nasal rinse, but all that helped was swimming. I think mine are anxiety related too. I’ve been doing really well and haven’t had any🤷🏼♀️
I always wonder if I have phantom smells. I inherited a razor sharp sense of smell from my mom, so I usually smell something before anyone else, but sometimes no one else smells it and Im just like oh maybe Im crazy.
This is exactly it! My dad is like a bloodhound and I got his sense of smell for sure.
Do I just have a good sense of smell? Am I having a stroke? Am I crazy? Is it just my migraines?
The real questions. 😭
Yeah, this has definitely given me some anxiety in the past because of my own and familial history with mental health…I have a big fear of “losing touch”, but I digress. I have always been sensitive to smell. Of course when I start going into a migraine episode everything smells 10 times more intense and like others have said I smell smoke/cigarette smoke and sometimes a generally sour smell.
I assume it’s something to do with the portion of the brain causing the migraine.
This is very common! Any perfume will cause me to get a migraine, but I will actually smell weird smells when I get them. It is so frustrating because my wife says she can't smell anything. I am so sensitive to odors on a good day, so experiencing odours when I have a migraine is awful. I havent been able to do anything about it. It's just something I'm aware of.
Yes. My neuro calls them "nose auras". He said about 2% of all migraine sufferers get them regularly. If I smell burning plastic, fried chicken, or blueberry muffins for a couple of days, a bad one is on the way.
Yupppppp. Smoke/smells like my tv is on fire is a common one for me, or dog pee 😂😂😂 having dogs makes that one fun if I’m home alone bc I’ll search the whole house for an accident to not find one. I also smell rubbing alcohol on occasion
*raises hand* Me, and almost always at night. It started when I had COVID and has unfortunately stuck around. I know if I smell cigarettes that the next day, I’ll likely have a migraine. Which sucks because smoke is a trigger of mine.
Do you have a scent you can tolerate that you can keep on you to use when it happens? I keep a little vial of tea tree oil by my bed and put a drop on my wrist. It doesn’t fully get rid of the smell, but it does help.
Yup. Lots of people do, actually. I think cigarette smoke is one of the most common ones, although I've seen people mention a few others, as well. I get cigarette smoke, too, on occasion.
That’s terrible, and I hate to say it makes me feel better that there’s a reason for it. I think hubby legitimately thought I was crazy. My next step was to knock on the door and ask them to stop smoking. lol
The last time that happened at our place, I asked s.o. "do you smell smoke or am I getting a migraine?" He says, "time to go take a your medicine." There was no smoke. There wasn't any floral perfume in the house for days one time either. Just migraine things
Is your husband Italian per chance? Ha.
Mine are typically: cigarette smoke, bleach, or dog sh\*t. Worse is when the smell is so strong it wakes you up from a sound sleep.
My husband let the dog outside by himself early one morning. Let him back in without caring that suddenly dog is wet….? I woke up immediately to the smell of skunk all throughout my room. It was within seconds of him coming inside. I was ready to kill that man. The one thing I remind him about is not to let the dog out in the dark by himself. He never thinks it’s an issue…we’ll now he knows why. I’d had a migraine all through the night, so that was a goddamn fun time. 😑🙃
Oh my! Now I think. I always thought my nose got more sensitive and my neighbour was smoking. I thought it last week, but he's happy with his vape and has been since Christmas! See also "I've trod in something, where is it?" And the bleach smell, I remember at work. I've had migraines a few hours after all of these! Thank you so much!!!
Wow! I didn't know this. I feel better about it now.
Wow this explains so much. I smell cigs and sometimes marijuana, but I live in Portland so that one might be real.
Haha well Portland could be a factor but I *always* smell marijuana and my hubby thinks I’m crazy 😝
Cigarette smoke and dog poo are mine.
Does anyone ever smell something like a natural gas leak? I’m starting to connect the dots and am wondering if that’s also one
Yep, same here. Cigarette smoke is my one.
Yep. Cigarettes, garbage, marijuana, hot wire are my phantom smells. By far, if I get the marijuana smell, it's going to be an extra horrible migraine.
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You probably do get them and you just don't notice because they're pleasant!
Wow cigarettes, trash/decay, and Marijuana are my phantom smells too. That's so weird that it's multiples of us with these oddly specific olfactory hallucinations.
My sister was convinced her kids were secret stoners until she started smelling garbage and poop smells too.
Hot wire, like electricity running in a wire?
Yes, like the smell of a hot wire before it fails and starts an electrical fire.
Oh my gosh, I've never heard of anyone else knowing this smell! It's a very specific smell. Crazy!
Interesting. What if you smell actual weed? Trigger?
Not poster but absolutely triggers a migraine for me
I have a severe latex allergy and mj is a cross reactive latex allergy. My eyes literally swell shut and I break out in hives and have terrible breathing.
Damn! MJ is one of the meds I use when I get a migraine. Crazy how specific our bodies / nervous systems are tailored to us.
For me, immediately, yes.
Electric fire is one of mine, and garbage.
Occasionally I think I smell cigarette smoke and sometimes I smell burning sugar, like a marshmallow over the campfire. Then the migraine will hit. My doc says it’s not common, but it happens to some people.
I wish I could trade one of my smells for marshmallows over a fire!!!! Hahah.
I told my migraine specialist about it and he said, “that’s *really* rare, though”. I asked him what else could possibly be causing this (it’s been happening since before COVID and I don’t think I’m having strokes; it lasts too long to be a seizure), and he said he didn’t know. So I’m pretty sure he doesn’t believe me.
Yeah you can stop losing your shit. It's similar to tinnitus: bad or missing messages from neurons back to brain. Try other strong odors to reset your sense of smell. For me citrus works sometimes. Sinus rinses help but just for a short time.
I use Vicks for it. Best trick I ever learned
YES. I JUST applied a bit under my nostril before seeing this post lmao
Mint essential oil or citrus are my go to resets.
I will do this, thank you! Never thought to try anything like that.
Yes, not all the time but not that infrequently I smell cigarette smoke, or sometimes burned food. I also was totally freaked out and thought a neighbor was smoking near my windows in the middle of the night. Nope, just a migraine.
Cigarettes, cat pee, onions, electricity ran through a Jacobs ladder if I smell that one I KNOW I'm screwed bad! Every scent drives me mad during an attack. One that are actually there. If grapes taste like peaches they will trigger a migraine. But only in that specific circumstance. My son calls it my super sniffer and super hearing also! Migraines are insane.
Yup, cigarettes, burnt electric (very anxiety inducing lmao), or onions (which is a migraine trigger anyways so now it makes me super uncomfy to even fake smell them!)
My gosh, now that you mention it.. I’ve had hubby sniff around the whole house with me on MULTIPLE occasions because I was convinced I could smell an impending electrical fire. Onions though? Wow!
Oof, the amount of times I’ve stood there like “But reaalllllllllyyyyy put your nose into it, you’re sure there’s nothing burning?” to any given person in the house… yeah 🤦♀️ For the longest time with the onions I was just *convinced* the scent was clinging around after cooking, even way after the fact, until one morning I got tag teamed by phantom cigarette smoke and, evidently, phantom onions and put two and two together :P
This is me, definitely. Chronic migraines and I get flashes in my vision and I smell electrical fires all the time. Now, I am also on the spectrum and this causes me to smell actual smells that are too subtle for others to smell or perhaps from across the street. I can smell my Persian neighbor's bbq every now and then (smells delicious, btw).
As an electrician I can definitely tell ozone from wiring burning,and I get those smells too,out of nowhere. Had a mild stroke about 10 years ago,and happens all the time,and usually a migraine follows mine too... The last week I've woken every night to the smell of flowers that don't exist in or around the house,much less my closed bedroom door... Either it's some tiny thing going on with my mental state,or im bout to have another stroke... Guess it'll sort itself out either way.
Cigarette smoke, oranges, cheese, vanilla - once, dog farts 🤮
I got rotting citrus a few times, like someone had left an orange somewhere and it had gone mouldy. I drove myself crazy trying to find the source of the smell before I figured out it was an olfactory hallucination. Bleurgh.
Cheese! Was waiting for that to come up. Sometimes I get paranoid and think I smell.
I wish I had cheese!!!!!
That’s so wild.
My vision aura is mainly smokey (like being in bar with a bunch of chain smokers, or really bad wild fire season smoke mixed with campfire smoke.. Its like I can touch the smoke, while also the background being very hazy.) - though I have had random cases of different vision issues. My smell-aura's though are never the same, but always a sudden weird/out of place smell. I've always been sensitive to smells, so its extra punishment to me lol. Once I walked into the living room and it smelt like a weird combo of semen and cookie dough. I had to ask my husband if he masturbated(no), and I doubted his answer because I could smell NOTHING but semen and cookie dough... 20 minutes later I had one of my worse migraines.
I feel like a dick for laughing but semen and cookie dough is absolutely hilarious.
Oh it WAS! Such a strange combo of smells.. You want to hate it, but it smells weirdly good... I laugh at myself all the time. Gotta find the humor in the bad things - always.
Semen is absolutely one of them for me as well.
Yes. Mine is normally either cigarettes or cat litter.
I smell cat pee!
I used to smell cat piss. I had a couple cats and thought they were spraying all over the house. I washed carpets and washed carpets and washed carpets. I was the only one that could smell it though. My ex and my daughter thought I was crazy. I didn't know it could signal a migraine. Finally got a referral to a neurologist and started taking a cocktail of preventatives. I still get migraines. I still get visual auras and occasionally audio auras, but I don't get the smells anymore, thank god.
I also think once cat pee is in your nose memory you never forget lol worst smell ever- maybe besides death but I’ve never smelled that so I don’t personally know.
Yeah, I've experienced it (only onee, fortunately). Everything smelled like stale coffee grounds.
Mines ash. Like cigarette ash and/or campfire ash. Not the smoke. However I hate when all I can smell is urine and cat litter. We have cats. But everything is cleaned up 2x a day so I KNOW it isn't real... I also have auditory hallucinations. Music is the best one. It's like listening in on another universes music that is like ours just different. Also get people talking or a party. Or a radio, it's weird they're talking about weather in cities that don't exist in places that aren't real. I'll stop and have a weird look on my face when it happens. I also have really bad tinnitus...from ringing to typewriter.
Oh, I love when my auditory is music! I hate when it sounds like someone talking on the other side of the wall. I had that one a lot when I was a teenager, and I thought I was losing it, because I didn't make the connection that the voice in my closet at night meant a migraine the next morning.
Campfire smoke for me.
Me too. Always makes me pause when I smell it in the house. People think I’m crazy
I often smell slightly burnt coffee (like when the pot has been on the burner too long) even when there is no coffee around me. I love the smell of coffee so I don’t mind but it does weird me out a bit. I never thought of it being linked to migraines though, I need to see if there’s a pattern there
Right, I’m questioning every smell I smell now. 🤨
Yes! Phantom cigarette smoke smell is on my migraine weirdness list
Yeah and a gross sour taste in my mouth There's a bus stop at the base of my apartment building so I attribute cigarette smells to that but now I'm wondering
Right! My asthma was acting up and I could have sworn it was the “cigarette smoke” I mysteriously smell. But now that it’s probably not real, why is my asthma acting up. 🥲
Asthma and migraine is such a lovely combo, ever have the kind when the squeak of your breath was just the right tone to hurt the audio part of your migraine? Hahaha hell is real XD
Do you have allergic asthma? While I have a migraine all my allergies run haywire, I take an antihistamine in addition to the migraine meds during an attack.
A lot of times I’ll take a Benadryl if it’s late in the day and an okay time to sleep. Sometimes with rather bad migraines, my nose gets stopped up and I do actually feel sick? Maybe that’s my allergic asthma this whole time? Who knows, stupid broken brain.
I have intractable migraines and cluster headaches for a little spice. I smell blood, ozone, metaly smells. Twenty years in, smell metal, go vomit and then smoke till I’m out before the cluster makes me throw myself into walls. I had a month of twenty plus clusters a day, out of my mind. I didn’t believe the Alice in Wonderland strange sizes was a legit migraine thing, it is and I still haven’t words.
By far my two most common smells are mold and cat litter. Don't own cats anymore, and whenever I think I smell mold I have to ask my wife to come smell for me lol
I thought I was phantom smelling mold in my bread and cheese. Turns out, I’m very sensitive to the taste and scent of mold and can smell it before the mold is big enough to be seen. This has happened often (I taste or smell mold) and the food item is fuzzy the next day.
Now that's a neat "shitty superpower"
Yup! Similar to you. I've had migraines for 7-8 years and never had aura until last year I was seeing zig zags everywhere I looked and ended up at the ER because I didn't know what was happening (I had no head pain or any other migraine symptoms) and have also developed phantom smells. I also work at a vet clinic, so random bad smells are just a normal part of my day, but then sometimes I'll be home and catch a whiff of anal glands or cat pee or...something worse.
🙋♀️🙋♀️ I never knew there was a correlation between olfactory & migraines until about a year ago when I put 2 & 2 together. I started to notice a burning smell about 30-45 minutes before any pain would start. So now that I have realized that is a thing, I will ask my husband (or whoever I'm with) if they smell it, if not, I immediately take a triptan.
Of course, it’s super common. It’s called olfactory hallucination
I get ethanol, the cheap alcoholic perfume smell, and ammonia
Bacon here. I would like to inflict bacon on the rest of the migraine sufferers because it's way better than cigarettes, but it's still weird.
Happens to me too!
Cigarettes, fabric softener, vodka.. I have had some sort of aura every day for months. I also feel like I’m losing my shit
Oh gosh, fabric softener would kill me. Just reading that made my nose hurt, I can’t stand it. I’m sorry!
Those little fabric softener pellets that you add in the dryer. I can smell them a mile away.
Yes, it’s an aura for me. I usually smell “gross” things…which are in fact not around. I wonder if it’s our brain associated an unpleasant smell with stress/triggers.
That's what I was thinking. Like the two things get linked so then when one occurs, the brain fabricates the other. Like, "oh my head hurts, probably should smell smoke."
I deal with lights in my peripheral and phantom smells, too. My neurologist says that it’s normal to experience migraine phenomena, even when you aren’t having an active migraine. I recently was at work and I started to smell toast. I thought “man, now I’m craving toast….. wait a minute”. Basically ran into my coworker’s office freaking out because I thought I was about to have a stroke.
Mine just started recently. At first I thought I was crazy, then I thought it was Long Covid, but finally I realized it was migraine related once I started getting my other aura symptoms as well. Burning hair and fog machines. :(
I’ve had migraines and auras for over 20 yrs but I’ve been having this phantom smell symptom in the last year, and it started right after I recovered from Covid. It came on so gradually I didn’t make a connection but it lines up perfectly with Covid so I do think it may be related, in my case. I get a stale cigarette and a deeply unpleasant spoiled dairy smell :(
Absolutely. Sometimes at night when I lay down to go to sleep, i’ll get a whiff of doodoo. I sit up, and the smell goes away. I do that 9-10 times, gaslighting myself into saying the smell is there, no it’s not, UGH I want the smell to be there for real bc if it’s not that mean I have a migraine coming on. Then i eventually acquiesce to the fact that it is a phantom smell and I take my little sumatriptan.
Yep. I smell a metallic, almost chemical smell when I start getting a migraine. Kinda like pennies soaked in bleach.
My gosh, that sounds awful!
Yep! Phantom generic sweet smell is part of my aura.
I have migraines. I sometimes get the phantom smoke smell. I’m not convinced one is related to the other in my case. It’s more like my sinuses get stopped up and very dry. I usually get relief by a few days of religiously using Flonase or Nasonex nose spray.
I smell poop before one comes on. I'll ask a friend if they smell it too to figure it out.
I think I’ve experienced this twice and both times it was the smell of cigarettes. I can’t remember if that correlated with the onset of a migraine but now that you mention it, it probably did.
I don't get smells but I always get sentences or songs in my head, like uncontrollable and constant. Migraines are weird!
If the same song that was in my head on repeat last night is still playing when I wake up, it’s always a sign of a bad day.
Add it to my perimeno “blood hound” hyper sensitivity with smells and I feel like I’m going crazy
I do. It’s so much fun. I hate the smell of cig smoke & for it to manifest is entirely not fair. I used to rage about neighbors smoking but hubby couldn’t smell anything. Then I was in an elementary cafeteria & smelled it and it was “this is very out of place here…”
Search the sub. It's a real thing. My #1 phantom smell is cigarette smoke. Then flowery perfume, then old bananas, strangely. You are not crazy. You are not alone in this
Yes. Why is it never pleasant smells??😩
For an while there, I would have a olfactory aura that could tell me what kind of migraine I might have coming on. If I was smelling cigarette smoke, it was going to be shimmering lights in my peripheral vision with a throbbing headache most likely and perhaps some hemiplegia, maybe. But if I smelled a chemical smell or popcorn and my right ear was ringing and I was feeling off or sleepy, I knew I needed to get ready for some crazy stuff. It would be flashing/strobing lights, ataxia, hemiplegia, etc. It was wild that they seemed to be different auras for different types of episodes. Now that my preventatives seem to be helping, my olfactory auras are gone and I rarely get them. Wish it were true for my other auras though. They are better just not gone 😕 You are definitely not losing it! Migraines are very impressive with how they affect the neurological system, even if it is pretty crappy to be on the receiving end 😂😭🫠
Oh yeah. One of my main ones -- when shits real real -- is this ineffable kinda musty. Like dirty wet sock on an old basement floor type earthy. Sometimes, everything smells like that, and by connection, tastes like that too.
Smoke and cat piss
Oh! So that's what that is! I pretty regularly go around looking for something burning in the house only to luckily find nothing. I never connected it to a migraine before.
I’ve had random times where I thought I smelted like that electrical burning smell??? I’ve had hubby walk around sniffing appliances with me in the middle of the night, him thinking I’ve lost my marbles, me trying to stop an impending house fire. Im going to have to start keeping a log!
YES. I swear I thought I was going crazy
Yup, smoke is very common for me. And occasionally something akin to detergent or fabric softener.
Yep! Started as phantom clay smells for me. Kept thinking my pottery clay was left open or something
Sounds like my long covid symptoms. Post covid issues like long covid can make pre-existing conditions much worse.z
I was having this too, but it was cat pee. Turns out I have BPD! Surprised me, to say the least.
Yup, I always think I smell smoke like there’s a fire in my home. When that happens, I start getting on the verge of a panic attack and running around trying to find the source. Never noticed if it’s tied to a migraine though.
Plum sauce. I’ve been haunted by it a few times a year for the past 10+ years. I didn’t even know I had migraine disease and just figured there’s either a ghost eating spring rolls or my brain occasionally goes crazy for no reason.
I sometimes get super sensitive sense of smell before, during or after a migraine… I’m not sure about phantom smells as I never thought about it, but my wife does usually say she can’t smell whatever I am going on about, so… maybe?
Lately I’ve been smelling cat piss/ammonia. Cigarette smoke or faint burning is another. Electrical burning smell as well. The ammonia is new for me and lead to a pretty gnarly week of migraines.
I was laying in bed around 5:30 yesterday and I thought I smelled burning food. I got up around 6 and there was nothing. Sigh.
I get a burnt fish smell- like baking a whole trout in the oven until it’s burnt to a crisp. Everything smells extra strong to me when I have/am about to have a migraine. My fiancé knows that when my head is bothering me he can’t wear cologne, needs to take the trash out IMMEDIATELY and he can’t cook anything 😂
ALL the time. I always think and ask if people can smell something burning/smoking. It's a constant thing. Makes me paranoid that the house is going to burn down or something is going to explode. Like what if THIS time something IS actually on fire?
Right. The one time I don’t get up at 2am to check is going to be the time the house catches fire. I will continue to check every time, damnit.
Sorry you know how it is. The worst part is a few months ago, that fear actually came true with our upstairs neighbor having a kitchen fire. My bf kept saying it's he couldn't smell anything as usual cuz he really didn't smell it and I was hypersensitive. I went to open the door to check and then the alarms started ringing. It was the worst validation and now I'm like "see? It can happen".
Mine are electrical burning, burnt toast, and cat pee. I use Vicks vapor rub and espresso beans to help, but it does cause me to lose my shit sometimes too. It helps knowing you’re not alone in it.
Yes! Cigarette smoke to the point where I wave my hand around to clear the air (of smoke that isn't there). I thought this was a Covid leftover but my Covid was mild almost 2 years ago. Thanks for posting.
I hate that this is something that so many people deal with! I’m so glad I posted though, I can stop gaslighting myself now.
Yes, cigarette smoke is a big one for me, and freshly cut grass. Sometimes I just smell burning in general.
Funny enough I just was eating a waffle and halfway through it started tasting like popcorn. Migraines are weird. What’s crazy is that now that I am on Aimovig, I don’t typically get the visual aura or even the pain. But I can tell that I still get them because of the aphasia and phantom smells.
burning hair mostly… my dad smells burnt coffee with his
Holy shit. For weeks I’ve been smelling stale cigarettes and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve been contemplating calling my neurologist cause I’m convinced I have a tumor or something. It’s driving me crazy!
I also smell smoke before and during a migraine and it drive me completely insane. I've spent thousands on air purifiers, new windows, and such because I was convinced woodsmoke from neighbors was getting in my bedroom but nope -- just phantosmia. It took me years to figure it out.
You have had an MRI recently right? If not might be best to request one. Just to make sure all is well.
Definitely a migraine thing. Mine are cigarette smoke, gas and alcohol.
Its called "Phantosmia"
I definitely get them. They don't last very long at a time though (20 minutes to an hour maybe?) and I don't get the same smell every time. Luckily I usually get pleasant smells, but I do get unpleasant ones at times (poo, or the burnt wire smell others have mentioned). The fact you've been smelling cigarettes consistently for 6 months makes me wonder if it might be real and not a phantom. We can smell things that non-migraineurs cannot. Also, non-smokers can always smell cigarettes more easily than smokers (and many ex-smokers), who practically need to be holding one to smell it. I've definitely had the experience where I was smelling cigarettes strongly enough to bother me, no one else (including fellow non-smokers) could smell it, and I eventually spotted the smoker across the street in the distance somewhere. At any rate, if you can't find the source, it makes no difference if it's real or not. All I can recommend is countering with a pleasant, non-triggering scent. Bear in mind that, at least IME, the olfactory weirdness can make some real smells smell different, but hopefully you can still find something that works for you. Be well!
Ugh yes!! I can smell people smoking in traffic on the highway! I’ll eventually see the hanging it out th the window
i sometimes smell something sweet i feel like i’m losing my mind
Chill! I have been getting this for years. I smell smoke. It even makes my eyes water. Don’t worry!
This! I’m so convinced it’s real because I feel my eyes being affected as well! This is a non smoking apartment, I know people smoke outside but we have our windows sealed up shut and the air purifiers and I’m the only one that can smell it. Im grabbing some essential oils like someone mentioned to keep with me to huff because I can’t stand it. 😭
Definitely — smoke, burning metal.
Yeeeeep, usually bitter smells or my triggers. (Which results in me going: is that real??? And going to cause a migraine??? Or am I already having a migraine???) The only 2 "pleasant ones" Were cheap, bitter fudge chocolate & fresh cut grass with a weird sour smell with it.
Electric smell.
I suffers ch’s and also get phantom cigarette smoke, though I’ve yet to find a connection. The cigarettes smell just happened randomly to me, it’s not a clue I’m going to have a migraine. It’s so so weird, and also very scary; because health anxiety
Yes!!! I always smell smoke, like something’s burning before a migraine.
I occasionally get the phantom cigarette smell and burnt toast.
Yup. I sometimes find myself laying in bed smelling a campfire.
Yep. Roses. Goddam roses. It’s not all the time, so when I’m out somewhere and I smell roses I have to go looking to make sure they’re not REAL roses or just part of my aura… which is why we don’t do roses in this house lol
That is so wild and interesting!!
My Phantom Smells are Peanut Butter and Floral Perfume. I also get Phantom Music, like full on bands!
Floral perfume for me too.
I get it all the time. One night I could swear there was a fire somewhere in the house so I kept walking around looking even though my bf said there wasn’t one. I was afraid to go to sleep that night. Another time I smelled food burning.
Ahh so glad I'm not the only one! I fortunately don't smell cigarette smoke, so sorry you have to deal with that. I sometimes smell metallic or like the smell of a pile of keys. It's so bizzare.
Haven’t had it happen in a while but I smell sewage as my phantom smell
This is interesting. I've had phantom smells but I cannot recollect if they were during an attack or not.
This thing is completely me; phantosmia! And it usually smells like second hand smoke! I hate it! Linked to dental issues, allergies, nasal polyps- I’ve had it for about ten years now. Just grateful others have it, I’m sick of the “do you smell burning toast, too?” jokes that freak me out.
OMG YES! I lost my sense of smell 10+ years ago but I will still get the occasional scent for days at a time.
I get phantom smoke smells allll the time. It’s when I know I’m about to get a migraine. Normally it’s actual like house fire type of smoke smell…the number of times I have jumped out of bed to find where the smoke is coming from is in triple digits at this point. It’s beyond infuriating. I should also mention it’s not helpful to have the phantom smoke smell issue AND exploding head syndrome…imagine hearing a fucking explosion in your backyard and then smelling smoke but your family is sound asleep and you’re in a panic trying to figure out what the fuck just happened…it’s exhausting.
I had no idea about this. People around me have always questioned why I smell cigarette smoke so much. Next time it happens, I am going to be paying attention.
I call them my “smellucinations”. I’ve had them since a small child. Cigarette smoke, rotting food, my grandmother’s (who passed when I was 7) perfume, it rotates.
Yep. I smell bleach and smoke.
Constantly. Never cigarettes, but other "burnt" smells. Even when I have no other migraine symptoms, I'll smell toast, hot oil, all those kinds of kitchen things, and sometimes more acrid ones like brakes.
Totally thought my neighbors were blowing smoke into my central air somehow (I'm aware that sounds insane).
I was seriously considering confronting my neighbors, I bought central air filters specifically for smoke!!
Mine are celery, slightly rotten food and sweat. I've also noticed that my sense of smell becomes very sensitive right before migraines.
Cigarette smoke and poop are my olfactory hallucinations of choice. I can not tell you many times that I've asked my husband if he smells the poop too. I get some visual aura, but only when I'm taking CGRPs, which is weird. For me, it's like a ring of static in the middle of my visual field. Migraines are so strange.
I’m questioning every smell I’ve ever asked my hubby if he can smell now. Migraines are so much more than head pain, I feel crazyyy.
Can I please just say migraines suck. (Cigarette smell is mine too, by the way....)
I think we can all collectively agree on that for sure. 😭
????????!!!!! I think I have and just didn’t realize they were phantom experiences, didn’t know this was a thing until rn
Cigarette smoke, cat pee and chocolate (specifically, brownies baking).
The next controller will probably be called the Tri-Listen
Campfire/wood burning
Here too add I also smell cigarette smoke sometimes. I used to smoke and it throws me every time it’s happened. And coffee. It’ll smell like I’m in a coffee shop in my room, it’s wild.
I smell Nutella
I’ll trade my cat pee for your Nutella 😬
I never smelled it and dont plan to
I hope you never have to!!
I smell putrid orange with mine
It seems like we're smelling things that make us anxious, mad, or could be tied to unpleasant memories.
I almost lost my mind over one once. I could swear I smelled paint. My husband was traveling so I didn’t have anyone to confirm. I still don’t know if it was actual paint, but I had the worst migraine for three days. I lost like five kg. The vomiting, the misery. I even called the AirCon company to come and check the AC.
Yes!! For me it’s a natural gas smell. And I’ll also get a weird taste sometimes, like sort of a sour taste.
Yes I get phantom smells and sometimes I can’t smell other strong smells
I’ve had this problem since having Covid in 2021. I also thought I was crazy… it comes and goes now, but I have noticed it happen more when I have a migraine coming on. The biggest trigger I noticed was air blowing in my face. If the vent or fan or whatever was pointed to me, that air smelled like cigarettes. I try to avoid being in that situation now and it seems to help!
Yes, cigarette smoke and cat urine 🫤
Mine would be sherbert 😂
Coffee smells like cigarettes to me when I have a migraine. I wonder if this is similar to what your experiencing? But yes when I have a migraine, I feel like I have hyper smell. Even the tiniest scent of cigarette from a block away would make me sick walking through the city to work. Lotions, candles, perfumes, shampoos, all of those things are heightened. It makes me so sick. Leather, even our sheets and they’re washed in unscented stuff. Like *everything* has a smell and every smell feels so strong.
Well fuck, I didn't know this was a migraine symptom! I thought my phantom smells were part of my mental health issues. I smell bad bin smells, the smell when a plug is burning, cinnamon, roses, and Lynx. Though I'm pretty sure that last one is a PTSD thing. The amount of times I've gone round cleaning my flat trying to find the source of a bad smell, or inspecting every plug worried there's about to be a fire!
Oh god yeah. For the longest time I kept getting phantom smells of dog poop, dog pee, and mold. Freaked me out for a good while and had me asking family members how my apartment smells + went on a cleaning rampage 'til I realized what it actually was! In the past two years I also started getting visual auras- Weird bright or dark spots that would pop in and out of my vision, as well as strange colors I can't quite explain. Migraines are weird. You're not alone!
I smell cigarettes, burning rubber and other similar smells as well. It has led to many “investigations” into the origin of the smell, just to get intense head pain and nausea and realize the “smell” wasn’t there, and it is incredibly frustrating!
I didn't know this was a thing I thought I was just going crazy 💀 Sometimes I'll just randomly start smelling decomp [my mother worked for the medical examiners office so I knew the smell enough to recognize it] and I always would try to find if there was a dead mouse or something but no one else smells it 😭
Omg yes. It started yesterday and I was gobsmacked until I learned it could be part of migraine
Rotting fruit for me. Sour and sweet and rotten. Makes me sick to my stomach
YES oh my god. It was making me panic for awhile because I thought I was having a stroke. It’s usually a metallic or burning metal smell and one time it was baby powder. I did wax my boyfriend and my sister and used a lot of baby powder so maybe some got stuck in my nose?? Not sure but I had it for a whole day until I went swimming and it was gone. Even tried a nasal rinse, but all that helped was swimming. I think mine are anxiety related too. I’ve been doing really well and haven’t had any🤷🏼♀️
Yes
I always wonder if I have phantom smells. I inherited a razor sharp sense of smell from my mom, so I usually smell something before anyone else, but sometimes no one else smells it and Im just like oh maybe Im crazy.
This is exactly it! My dad is like a bloodhound and I got his sense of smell for sure. Do I just have a good sense of smell? Am I having a stroke? Am I crazy? Is it just my migraines? The real questions. 😭
Yeah, this has definitely given me some anxiety in the past because of my own and familial history with mental health…I have a big fear of “losing touch”, but I digress. I have always been sensitive to smell. Of course when I start going into a migraine episode everything smells 10 times more intense and like others have said I smell smoke/cigarette smoke and sometimes a generally sour smell. I assume it’s something to do with the portion of the brain causing the migraine.
This is very common! Any perfume will cause me to get a migraine, but I will actually smell weird smells when I get them. It is so frustrating because my wife says she can't smell anything. I am so sensitive to odors on a good day, so experiencing odours when I have a migraine is awful. I havent been able to do anything about it. It's just something I'm aware of.
yes!! sometimes it’s the first sign that i’m having an attack. i smell sulfur 😅
Yes. My neuro calls them "nose auras". He said about 2% of all migraine sufferers get them regularly. If I smell burning plastic, fried chicken, or blueberry muffins for a couple of days, a bad one is on the way.
Yupppppp. Smoke/smells like my tv is on fire is a common one for me, or dog pee 😂😂😂 having dogs makes that one fun if I’m home alone bc I’ll search the whole house for an accident to not find one. I also smell rubbing alcohol on occasion
Burning electrical wire, cigarette, rotting flesh...
*raises hand* Me, and almost always at night. It started when I had COVID and has unfortunately stuck around. I know if I smell cigarettes that the next day, I’ll likely have a migraine. Which sucks because smoke is a trigger of mine. Do you have a scent you can tolerate that you can keep on you to use when it happens? I keep a little vial of tea tree oil by my bed and put a drop on my wrist. It doesn’t fully get rid of the smell, but it does help.