As afragrance loverand avid home cook, I was relieved when these senses began to creep back.
But one frigid January morning, I woke to the smell of something burning.
I realized this acrid scent wasn’t limited to one putrid bulb.
Allure
It was all alliums, ingredients in everything I tried to eat, or so it seemed.
Also amiss: Tap water reeked of bleach; I smelled gasoline when none was present.
My own body odor was unrecognizable, like a stranger had been wearing my clothes.
Electroacupuncture is less painful than it looks, I promise.
My senses were, simply stated, torched.
“When you smell a poison, you know not to go near it.
When you smell smoke and fire, you are aware there’s danger.
The Lanserhof center in Lans, Austria.
“Will my symptoms ever fully resolve?
“It’s a special sense for a reason,” he notes.
“There’s no separatingthe psychologyfrom the physiology.
So much spelt bread.
It breathed ash intomy perfumesand subway cars packed with odorous passengers.
It wedged itself between my partner and me in bed, blowing smoke rings in the dark.
Most of my day was spent in displeasure, and my mental health was suffering for it.
Hiking in the mountains.
Electroacupuncture is less painful than it looks, I promise.
“It’s not psychological, it’s neurological.
The brain controls everything.
The sauna to myself.
And due to nervedamage, your brain is not fully functioning.
That affects your serotonin, a neurotransmitter and ‘happy’ hormone,” Dr. Law explains.
She says her parosmia patients as young as 30 have also reported brain fog and short-term memory loss.
The holy spring in the mountains.
Celebritiesare known to flock to this European wellness hub to detox.
The Lanserhof center in Lans, Austria.
“People are immediately in a kind of bubble when they come.
CellGym training.
This is the magic here.
Ice-cold glacier water runs from the taps with no acrid metal taste.
So much spelt bread.
LED light therapy.
Hiking in the mountains.
The sauna to myself.
altitude training (remember that oxygen mask?
(I may even snort a little.
Can’t hurt, right?)
Minus the hunger headaches, the experience is healing in every sense of the word.
The holy spring in the mountains.
My childhood home smells unfamiliar.
I hug my friends but my body recognizes no one.
I fear how shallow my future will feel without these senses to anchor me.
This story originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of Allure.
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