Is Denial Really More Than Just A River In Egypt?
There is a condition that effects millions, including myself. I'm referring to anosmia. For those that don't know Anosmia is not having a sense of smell. I, like many others, was born without a sense of smell. Yep, I was born with only four senses. Claiming to not have a sense of smell is, to some, must be some kind of joke. I've had people try and trick me into admitting that I can smell.
The first time I remember recognizing that my perception of the world was different than those around me was in Kindergarten. We were learning about our senses. I could see, hear, and taste just like the other children but when I came to smelling I didn't react like they did. It was kind of strange that they could identify objects while blindfolded just by inhaling through their nose near the object. Trying as hard as I could I just couldn't distinguish a difference between an orange or a cup of dirt using only my nose.
During science class when we were learning about making observations using our senses I was completely dependent on others to explain how something smelled. At one time I had aspirations of becoming a chef because I like to cook and I thought it would be fun to be a called Chef Kitchen. One of the most difficult final exams I had to take in high school was in a cooking class. We had to identify spices without tasting them. I don't have to tell you that there are some spices that are very difficult to distinguish one from another using vision only.
In middle school I was getting a physical to participate in track and my mother mentioned offhandedly that I couldn't smell to my doctor and he told us what it was called and said that his son also didn't have sense of smell. I thought that was kind of interesting and didn't think much about it until I was reading an article in the March 2005 Smithsonian magazine. It was wonderful to know that there were others like me out there.
One of my sister-in-laws choose to do their senior high school project about anosmia. She asked to interview me for this project. She shared some information about research that was being done to treat those that have anosmia to allow them to smell. She then asked me if I would want to be able to smell. My response was no, I would not want to be have this sense. Since I have never had the sensation of smelling something there isn't a void in my perception. I don't think there is something "wrong" with me because I don't perceive things as most others do.
David Eagleman, in his book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, shares an example sited person thinking of perception for a blind person.
"Ask yourself what it would be like to have been blind from birth. Really think about this for a moment. If your guess is “it would something like blackness” or “something like a dark hole where vision should be,” you’re wrong. To understand why, imagine you’re a scent dog such as a bloodhound. Your long nose houses two hundred million scent receptors. On the outside, your wet nostrils attract and trap scent molecules. The slits at the corners of each nostril flare out to allow more air flow as you sniff. Even your floppy ears drag along the ground and kick up scent molecules. Your world is all about smelling. One afternoon, as you’re following your master, you stop in your tracks with a revelation. What is it like to have the pitiful, impoverished nose of a human being? What can humans possibly detect when they take in a feeble little noseful of air? Do they suffer a blackness? A hole of smell where smell is supposed to be? Because you’re a human, you know the answer is no. There is no hole or blackness or missing feeling where the scent is absent. You accept your reality as it’s presented to you. Because you don’t have the smelling capabilities of a bloodhound, it doesn’t even strike you that things could be different. The same goes for people with color blindness: until they learn that others can see hues they cannot, the thought does not even hit their radar screen."
Many in the deaf community they will tell you that feel similarly about not feeling hampered by their different perception of the world around them.
On a final note some have asked me if one of my other sences is hightened to make up for me not being able to smell. You can ask anyone that knows me to corroborate my claim to have an enhanced sense of style or timing.
