Wellbeing Through Community

Not being able to smell can feel very lonely, isolating, and upsetting.

The good news is that there is community out there and you have many ways to connect with others who also can't smell.

The truth is that finding community is critically important to your health and wellbeing.

Because, when you connect with fellow anosmics, it can be motivating and inspiring to lift each other up.

It's a chance to make new friends and bond with like-minded people.

And it's an opportunity to find moments of joy and comfort, which helps lower stress.

And helps you be well. 

Resource: Food

One of the most disheartening aspects of smell loss is the decrease in the ability to detect flavor in food. Without a functioning sense of smell, many foods can taste bland and unenjoyable.

But this doesn’t have to mean that eating is without any pleasure. There are various ways you can "trick" your brain into finding satisfaction in a meal. 

Learn tips and tricks to have more enjoyable meals. 

Resource: Scent Memories

Smelling is in the brain, which means your sense of smell is made of neural pathways that connect odor molecules to various parts of the brain, including memory. 

There are mental smell exercises you can do to try and help create "smell" pathways by tapping into scent memories from when you could smell.

Learn to tap into your scent memories through easy, at home smell exercises.

Resource: Odor Descriptions 

A wonderful anytime exercise to try out, along with smell training, is to put language to everyday items and verbalize the odor of the item, thereby helping to make the nose-brain connection. 

The challenge is that, over time, it can be difficult to remember what things smelled like. You lose the memory, and with it the language, to describe odors.