Smell Smoke

To those of you who think this is psychosymatic (or all in your head), it's not. Certainly stress may be a factor, but these are real physical symptoms. Stress can cause tangible illness, but we're not nuts, we're not imagining things, we're suffering from a genuine ailment. Even if we are nuts (which we're not!), any good doctor will eliminate all the physiological possibilities first before looking at the pyschological causes. If you're seeing a doctor who is dismissing your discomfort, you need a new doctor! Don't let anyone tell you you're imagining this!

And I don't know anyone who doesn't suffer from some level of stress. Anyone who says they're stress-free isn't being honest. Those of us who experience, as crispian put it, debilitating amounts of stress or anxiety are still not responsible for our crummy sinus infections or bronchitis. Who in the world would want to smell cigarette smoke, or gasoline or cigar smoke? I can certainly think of better things to "make up". I could go with a compulsion to eat chocolate all the time...Wait, I do that already!

I'm not a big fan of medicating to relieve stress, but I know that if it starts to cripple a person physically, you do what you have to do. There are anti-anxiety meds out there that can help. Then you can start the yoga, meditation or any other alternative methods of relieving stress. But don't make youself suffer with the idea that you are the cause of this odd, but very real situation. Just read the posts on this forum - almost everyone has expressed relief that there are other people out there who are experiencing this bizarre condition. Unless this is a world-wide psychosis, we are all living with a very real illness.

Thanks for letting me throw in my two cents!

I can't tell you how glad I am to have found you...All you smoke smellers! I've been nauseated by 'phantom' cigarette smoke for a couple of years now. I actually began to accept that eventually my 'tumor' would just finally get big enough to be found. What else could cause such a symptom? Then, almost by accident I found this place! Halleujah!!

Now that I have your attention I have a partial theory. I always smell the dreaded cigarette smoke when i'm @ work. I work 2/3 days p/wk. It's fairly consistent there. But one thing I also have to deal with here is the smell of coffee, burnt coffee to be precise. I sit right next to the coffee room & it always stinks of stale, over cooked coffee. I sometimes feel queasy from it, but most days, just like right now (yes, i'm working) I only smell 'cigarette' but I know no one's smoking anywhere around here. There is, however, a pot of burnt coffee not 15 feet away but I don't smell coffee. No sir, I smell marlboros! Obviously, for reasons I fear, my brain is interpretting the coffee as cigaretts. I don't know which is worse.

I haven't ever tried to 'do' anything about it because I didn't know there was anything to do. I'm going to try some experimenting, first with allergy meds. One reason I wonder if it may help is because I also have unexplained itching in my hands & feet, which claratin seems to help. I have no bumps, spots or rash, just intense itching, especially after walking on a cold floor or washing my hands in very hot water or putting extreme pressure on my hands such as struggling to open a jar. I could itch my skin off & not satisfy it. It eventually goes away, but I don't know why. Out of desperation I tried claratin, figuring I must be allergic to something. My son was getting married & I wasn't about to ruin the day my scratching like a dog. The claritin worked! But I never connected the itching with the 'smelling'. Maybe there is none, but i'm going to try paying attention to see if there might be.

In the meantime, thank you all for sharing & helping calm my mind by feeling less weird because I feel less alone!

The first weekend of october, we went to vegas. The casinos are so disgustingly smokey, which I despise. Love vegas, hate cigarette smoke.

Anyhow, we were in non smoking rooms at the mgm yet I swore I smelled smoke in our room, but not in my mom's room. The first night I woke up sweating and parched...It was a bad sleep. The next night it wasn't as bad, but still, it's the desert so I was dehydrated.

When we got home (to los angeles), I swore I smelled smoke. No one else did, so I knew it was just me. I noticed it most when I was sitting down for a period of time - specifically, the couch at home and my computer at the office and home. When I was moving, I wasn't smelling it or aware of it. I took zinc, which might have helped, and I used a nasal spray of hydrogen peroxide and water. Let me take this moment to advise anyone against this sort of self medicating tomfoolery. It didn't help and burned as if hell itself had literally exploded into my nasal passages. If anything, get saline solution, or just water and salt.

Anyhow, this haunting smoke smell went on for about 6 days before I went to the doctor. He gave me clarinex and nasacort aq, and also said that it's a common thing. After about four days it subsided. It's still early but I hope that was just a sinus issue, because of course, I did a google search and read about brain tumors and all sorts of neurological possibilities and panicked. I'm happy not to be smelling the smoke. I will keep you posted, and let's hope we read more solution posts!

It has now been a week since I started smelling smoke (again, the wood burning type) my symptoms started during the early hours of the morning and in a panic thinking the house was on fire, I got all the kids out of bed.

My girlfriend thought I was sleepwalking especially since I was babbling on about smelling smoke when there was nothing there.

In the past week I tried to book an emergency doctors appointment but was told by the nurse, that she had never heard of this before but since there were no other symptoms to do some menthol steam inhalations, take a couple of paracetamol and she didn't think it was important enough to bother the doctor with.

Since I work for the health service, I called in a few favours and spoke to another nurse later that day who luckily had heard of this before but never actually spoke to anyone suffering from "smelling smoke." I too am a sinus sufferer so after going over a brief medical history she came to the conclusion that this could be a chronic sinus infection which would need strong antibiotics over a longer period of time. But since she correctly assumed this could be anything from a tumour to a blocked sinus she felt it urgent enough to get me in to see a doctor straight away.

The doctor had to confess he had never come across this before and after explaining that I wasn't some nutcase seeking attention and that it was embarrassing enough for me to be in the doctors office with the only symptom being smelling smoke, he gave me a brief examination. Helped on by the fact my medical records show that I only see a doctor perhaps once a year and only if i'm at deaths door or severly injured and only if i've been dragged kicking and screaming)

the doctor found my throat was slightly red but not inflamed, my nasal cavaties were a little dry but not inflamed and my ears were fine. No temp, blood pressure and pulse fine. He admitted he was stumped because of the lack of other symptoms to point him in the right area and only prescribed nasonex which he said to try over the weekend, and if that failed I am to go back monday and he shall arrange further testing.

Although I had looked up my symptoms before going to see the doctor, I thought it best not to tell him I had done so. Firstly, doctors here in the uk can get upset if you walk into their office and tell them what is wrong with you (despite the fact I have 5 years medical training and medical background) because it takes the fun out of them making something up to baffle you with when they don't know what the problem is.

Secondly, and slightly related to the first, having regained their composure after being upset at you for telling them what you have, they focus on one part. I.E if you tell them it is sinus related, they treat the sinus and you could infact have the wrong diagnosis.

Instead, I have a doctor who admits when he doesn't know and i've not given anything away. This way I know the tests will be thorough (because we get healthcare free in the uk it means all possible angles can be looked at without ringing up a huge insurance bill) and hopefully at the end of the tests, treatment etc... I can get back to you and update you as to the findings.

I just confessed to my sister that i've beening what I call a 'smell in my head' and she confessed that she has had it too. I've had this for years and have learned that it is often food related. If I have cereal with skim milk for breakfast it triggers the smell almost immediately. Sometimes cured meat products (bacon, sausage, salami) have the same effect. I'm curious if anyone else has noticed their smell to be food related. I had the new allergy blood test last year and i'm not allergic to milk, but I suspect that I do have an allergy to some kind of chemical food additive or preservative.

I started posting in january of this year, only posted a couple of times, never heard anything for a long time, then I find that my emails are not being delivered, I don't know why, but well that is secondary. I am still smelling smoke. It has been 11 months now, it doesn't always happen and I cannot find a common denominator as to why it comes and why it goes.

So I am asking any of you who would answer this question. Do any of you have herpes. I contacted herpes like others through a sexual act and have been living with it for a while. Now wonder if in some way it is not to blame, because I have had no break out for a long time but when I start smelling smoke my head feels inflamed. Like the tissue between my brain and cranium is on fire.

Any one else have these symptoms??


Smokeless lady

Well, I smelled smoked again about 2 weeks ago, went immediately back on the clarinex and nasacort. Saw an ent yesterday, who said its a common occurrence (whew) and symptom of a virus that may have passed through my symptom. The smell may come and go when I am in at a higher altitude, and not to stress about it. She didnt act like I was batty, and said it happens frequently.

Phantosmia is the name of a disorder that causes you to smell smoke. I also live in maryland and thought my brakes on my truck were burning this morning because they are making a noise. However, when I got to work, about a half hour after I sat down, I smelled the same odor. Its really scary. I decided to go online and look into it and that is the disorder that describes what I am experiencing.

Alot of people have posted on this site that they smell smoke, but not many come back to say what they have found out what it was or if went away or if they still have it.

I'll do the same!!!

Let me know!

Hello. I too am smelling cigarette smoke. It started about two days ago and is driving me absolutely mad! I hate the smell of cigarettes as is, now I cannot even escape it. My eyes get dry, my throat gets dry, I am constantly naseous and have a mondo headache.

I am wondering if marbay had his results back yet? And yes, I was beginning to think that I was nuts, including my friends.



If someone has found a "cure", please please share it. I can't even get a breath of fresh air.


Sincerely,
h

Hello people,
i maybe too young for this since I am a student but recently i've been facing the same problem as you all. This smoke smell comes and goes continously with no ending. I smell it every where, when i'm in bed or in a car or even playing soccer. I've heard on a show that if a person have been smelling something funny like something burning it means that you have seizure which leads to brain tumor. If you don't believe check for yourselves. I still didn't check this problem with a doctor but i'm doinig it soon.

I have been smelling smoke now for 3 days.I quit smoking 8 years ago and I cannot understand why this is happening.This just started last year and this is the 3 time it's happened,very frustrating,is there anyone here that may know something ,anything that might help.Thanks

I have been smelling smoke for over a year now, off and on. Sometimes it is associated with vertigo and a couple of times I have experienced blurry vision. I almost always end up feeling nausea and after hours of smelling it, a headache. There doesn't seem to be any triggers that I can see.
I am seeing a neurologist today and am also being scheduled for an mri. I have always used flonase as I have year round mild allergies so I don't think it makes a difference. I take it every day and get these smoke smells all the time. Some times weeks go by smoke free and then some times I get it for two or three days in a row.
I will definately let you all know if I find anything new.
This has been a very informative forum and has really helped me see I am not alone and not crazy, which I did think I was until I read all the postings. It just so happens that I have been smelling smoke for 2 days now and my neuro appointment is today! What luck.

I will get back to you as soon as I know.

I felt so much better when I found this forum. I really thought I was losing my mind. My problem began about a year ago. I smelled a wet wood burning smell. It began at work, and it seemed like I only smelled it there, but later it started at night too. For the last year I have been seeking answers, and I thought I had it beat last april when I had sinus surgery to remove sinus polyps. The smell stopped for about 2 months, and then came back. My ent now says he has no idea of why I am still smelling it - he kind of laughed me off. I have also seen a neurologist, who gave me a brain mri (looking for tumors) and several blood tests (looking for infection), both came back ok. Mri did show still some sinus problems, even after surgery. My neurologist also wants to do an eeg to test for epilepsy.

At this point, I am logging my "flare-ups", and am getting a second opinion from an ent. I have had so many antibiotics and steriod packs - it always comes back. I am hoping that my eeg will be ok, and also am hoping that my second opinion helps.