I was sitting in church a few weeks
ago and caught a hint of an unusual scent. I tried to decipher what it could
possibly be, and thought I detected a hint of vanilla mixed with a light floral
fragrance. It seemed odd that I caught only a whiff of the pleasant smell, and then it was gone. After church, I made a trip to Walmart. As I rounded the
canned vegetable aisle, there was the same scent—illusive, and a little bit
creepy, to tell the truth.
Nice smelling ghosts aside, this
phantom smell concerned me. I had heard that smelling something that wasn’t
there could be a sign of something going wrong in the brain—tumors and dementia
at the top of the list. Phantosmia, olfactory hallucination, can be deadly
serious.
I loaded my groceries, jumped in my
car, and turned on the ignition. The air conditioner kicked on, and I breathed
in the fragrance again! That’s when it dawned on me—the unusual smell was from
the new body lotion I’d put on my arms that morning. Well, I was relieved that
I’d solved the mystery and dodged that neurological disorder bullet in one fell swoop.
We are surrounded by odors,
pleasant and unpleasant. Some of our strongest memories are tied to smells.
Harold and I were in the shop working on his latest project when I caught the
smell of freshly sawed lumber. Immediately, I thought of Jim and me building
his mom’s house and then ours. By building, I don’t mean hire a contractor. We
didn’t have money for that! We strapped on our tool belts and went to work. Jim
could smack a nail a few times with his hammer and drive it home. I “Lizzy
Borden-ed” my nails. About forty whacks later, I’d be there too.
Scents are a time machine. A recent
article I read talked about how our noses are important memory tools. Our sense
of smell can stimulate the brain to remember. The article in the caring.com
newsletter said, “Although someone with severe-stage dementia may seem beyond
all interaction, you may be able to reach in and connect through smell.”
Odors can be used to influence
mood. Aromatherapy can stimulate different moods or emotions. Some scents,
lavender, for example, are soothing and can be helpful for insomniacs. Peppermint
and rosemary are believed to be stimulating. Peppermint might also remind a
loved one of Christmas. For me, wintergreen makes me think of being sick—Pepto-Bismol.
In fact, the very smell makes me queasy.
What about those candles or
plug-ins that smell like sugar cookies? That brings back memories of my
mother-in-law Virginia preparing dozens of sugar cookies for care packages to
family members. The trouble is, those scents make me hungry! And the smell of cinnamon
drives me insane for Virginia’s cinnamon rolls.
The smell of crayons or a freshly
sharpened #2 pencil will bring up mental images of the first grade. I didn’t go
to kindergarten so first grade was my introduction to a schoolroom. My older
brother, Tommy, ever helpful, dropped me off at the room. He tried to prepare
me for my new experience by telling me the pencil sharpener was at the back of
the room.
All was well, until I panicked when
I couldn’t figure out exactly what the pencil sharpener was supposed to look
like. I started crying. Of course, they went and got my brother to calm me
down. He later said that I cried every day of first grade, but I think that is
an exaggeration.
We can
smell our way back to our younger years, or even our childhood. Wouldn’t it be
great if we only remembered the happy smells and not the icky ones? Sometimes,
we don’t get to choose which memories our sniffer triggers, because the nose knows
our oldest and most deeply rooted memories.
Resource: https://www.caring.com/articles/scents-and-dementia
Copyright © August 2016 by L.S.
Fisher
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