Newbie trying to understand - Hallucinations

[hell1971]

Hi was diagnosed BP2 on Monday and am now on Epilim 3 x day,

Can you have smell hallucinations, when I was really depressed and I think when I was hypomanic but Im not sure I had a strong sense that there was a smell in the house down the hall way, it has almost always been in the same place but sometimes it would be elsewhere. No one else could smell it, I even got the neighbours over one night because to me it smelled like an animal had died, it was so over powerring to me it made me feel sick, this has come and gone but I seem to be the only one who can smell it, it drove me crazy so I disinfected the whole area and it still came back?

Any comments would be appreciated  

[LeftCoastChick]

you would be one of those unique people who's olofactory system is super sensitive. How old is the house? Strangely if the house is very old, heat can bring out old smells as well. The house I grew up in, if it hit the high 80's always smelled like lemon polish and we'd carpeted most of the house. Strange things just happen. Farm houses have that happen, even if they don't have cattle anymore. .I wouldn't worry or get to hypervigilant about the smells.. it's odd, but there are logical reasons right?

[bernie40]

I agree with LCC.  I have been known to scour the house in search of the source of a smell that no-one else can smell.  I've never considered it to be a type of hallucination just a sensitive nose.  Unfortunately like you, its always the smell of something dead - ugh!

[hell1971]

The house is 1970s, the smell has been through the winter so I dont think it is related to the house becoming hot, I am in NZ so we dont have any heating in winter.  Im just trying to filter through my behaviours to find out what has happened this year and what is related to BP and what isnt, I need to know so that my family stop putting everything I do down to BP.

I dont feel like anyone understands me, I dont think I even understand myself.

[bernie40]

you've raised an important point there - the fact that once diagnosed people have a habit of relating everything you do as being down to the BP.  I get very frustrated about this and have even found it with some Drs.  As to what the answer is, right now my brain is functioning well enough to work that one out!  It would be interesting to see what others think.

[LeftCoastChick]

You will figure it out in time, and I couldn't have said it any better the bulldozer - for the first while I related everything I did to BP,  but I have figured how I behave towards things, and it makes it much easier to figure out what is "environmental" and what's BP. LIke getting depressed, was I triggered by someone/thing or did it just happened?

[Stphmy6]

Hi, I was diagnosed Bi Polar 2 years ago. I have been recieving treatment along with Lithium and Risperdal. I was up with hallucinations for seven days. I never smelled anything like you described but I believe it is possible. I think what I would do is first come to the reality that it is part of the disease and you are not the disease. I would first clean like you did and accept that it is clean. Walk away. You did what you could you know that dead animals are not there. If you were diagnosed less then a week ago I know it is hard but there is light at the end of the tunnel. My life was distroyed when I was diagnosed. Since then I have gotten my family back and I currently go to school. I see a shrink and I go to a therpist. The meds I take work wonders and I would not be where I am without the right medication. I am actually thankful because I no longer have the outrage inside. My mood is stable. How are you?

[hell1971]

Thank you for asking how I am, right now I feel on edge, not sure how to describe have been ok for most of the day but just in the last hour or so my mood has changed, I feel like I am not in contol and im not sure what is going to happen but I feel like Im going to scream or something

[ILADVOCATE]

As I've posted having recovered from schizoaffective disorder, I can look back and understand the experience better. People think that you can only "hear voices" that is have auditory hallucinations but they can occur in all five senses, although auditory hallucinations are the most common and visual hallucinations the next. I know I had tactile (touch) hallucinations. As for olfactory (smell) hallucations I would say it was uncommon for me but it did happen. Of course that was part of the whole spectrum of psychosis of schizoaffective disorder and you are not describing anything else that would be considered psychotic overall. It sounds more like obsessive compulsive disorder to me. But I'd need to know more and more importantly your psychiatrist should. Is this a one time incident? Do you worry about this kind of thing often, that is have contamination fears? Do you have other disturbing or psychotic thoughts? Or was this part of an anxiety episode where a minor smell from something not easily visible (like mildew) but in no way dangerous set off an anxiety attack? I would think about all that and then speak to your psychiatrist. There are a lot of variables.

[hell1971]

I have no idea wether it is OCD or not, all I know is that during my very long depressed mixed state this year that several times I had an experience of smelling something that was so foul, no one else smelled it and I got frustrated with my husband who just couldnt smell it. Most of the last six months have been a fuzz so i cant remember what state I was in when it happened, it would go on for hours each time I went into the area I would smell it, I emptied the room and washed everything I could, one night I got my neighbours over and they checked up in the roof for me and said they couldnt smell anything. to my knowledge I have only had some forms of hallucinations before but this was when I was hypomanic from ADs, I had crawling sensations, bugs at the side of me and a little girl and someone else talking quietly in my head, all these things happened when I had stopped the Ads and only lasted a few seconds at a time. I dont think I have had anything like this before although I have had many experiences when I have been paranoid someone was in the house and made my husband get up many times in the past, I have been convinced that animals are in the roof and that someone is standing in our room, im not sure if this is just normal overly sensitive paranoia that everyone gets now and again or if this has been my BP, I have never taken much notice before as I say I am learning and trying to identify what has been BP behaviours and what is normal me. I guess in the future I may understand these things and be aware I am having an episode or wether it is just normal scared behaviour because you here something and your mind just starts playing tricks on you, I honestly dont know. One thing I have learnt is that no one talks about this stuff so I just thought all this was normal and was a personality thing.

[therese83]

I had such a smell, my husband couldnt smell it (he is a smoker) people have different smell sensitivity.

I thought we had a dead rat in the atic.

It was in fact water leaking in causing a kind of a rot.  rot can smell like a dead animal.

I bet you there is a smell there and it is not a 'smell hallucination'........smile.......