Published Article

HeadlineAnosmia: what it’s like to lose your sense of smell

Short HeadlineHow important is your sense of smell?

StandfirstThe number of people with an impaired ability to smell has drastically increased due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On May 18 2020, the British Government declared loss of sense of smell a symptom of Covid-19.

Around 86% of people who contracted the virus have experienced some form of smell loss. That is according to a study from the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Experts within the field believe this to be a bigger issue for people than many would have thought.

One of these experts is Dr Lisha McClelland, who is an ear, nose, and throat consultant at the University of Birmingham.

“Your sense of smell is hugely important,” she told City News. “The obvious reason is that it helps you perceive your environment and establish danger.

“But it’s also vital in terms of your ability to taste things and therefore impacts your physical health.”

How it impacts physical health

One of the people whose physical health has been exacerbated by acquired anosmia through Covid-19 is Tracey Abrahams.

She is one of over two million people in the UK suffering from Long Covid. As a result of this, she has difficulty picking up certain smells.

Having spent three weeks in a coma and seven weeks on a ventilator afterwards, Tracey described how continued lack of smell hindered her recovery.

“It meant I didn’t want to eat because I got no joy from it. Proteins are still particularly difficult. That was a real problem early on because obviously they were vital in giving me the strength I needed to get better.”

However, Tracey also spoke about how anosmia affected her mental well-being.

“I always used to love putting a scented candle on whenever I felt a bit miserable,” she said. “Of course, I can’t do that anymore and that’s very sad.”

“It ruined Christmas”

Another person who believes that acquired anosmia had a serious effect on their mental health is James Hart. He tested positive for Covid-19 around Christmas 2020.

“It completely ruined my Christmas,” he told City News. “And it wasn’t the Covid that ruined it – it was definitely the lack of smell.

“Thankfully, my Covid symptoms were mild. Not being able to smell was awful though. I couldn’t smell all the smells that made me think of Christmas or my dog or even being in my own home. It was like I was there, but I wasn’t experiencing it properly, so I wasn’t there.”

Loss of smell still impacts specific emotions and memories in Tracey as well. She, unlike James, is still being affected by this though.

“There are all these smells that I love that just don’t exist anymore really. Cut grass is my favourite smell and that’s gone.

“But also there’s a certain perfume that my nan used to wear and sometimes I’d smell that on the street randomly and think of her.

“That doesn’t happen anymore. My nan died years ago and now it feels like I’ve lost her a bit more.”

Smell and emotion

To find out why smell seems to have such an emotional relationship with people, City News spoke to Dr Lorenzo Stafford. He is a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth, who primarily deals with how taste and smell relate to human behaviour.

“Our sense of smell is closest to the emotional centre of the brain – the amygdala,” he said. “It’s for that reason certain odours can provoke very strong emotional reactions.

“It’s also more difficult to recreate smells in our mind than it is for other senses. It’s difficult to identify certain odours even when they are present at the time.

“Sometimes we can walk down the road and smell a perfume or an aftershave and we can get a really intense emotional reaction. It’s like it’s the first time we experience that smell and that takes us right back to where we were during that experience.

“That’s basically why people associate smells with specific people, places and memories. It’s why it can have such a huge impact on you if you lose it.”