lost of smell and taste

[guyaneseleeza]

Hello,hope i can get some help here since i've tried every other possible way available to me.I've had a head injury about nine months ago and still can't recover fully from it.I have lost my sense of smell and taste,i can taste high salt,sugar and bitterness nothing else.I however CANNOT smell anything period!!!!! i am so depressed by it because i cannot even smell if anything is burning and that is not safe.I would do anything to taste what i am eating,i dont know what to try next,please help me in whatever way is possible.


This discussion is related to dp1953.

[bysus]

I am 43 and lost my sense of smell and taste about 17 years ago.  It happened gradually, over a period of about a year before it was entirely gone.  Never any head trauma or accidents, was totally checked out with MRI and two ear nose throat drs.  Nothing found and was told it happens to about a handful of people a year.  Its extremely depressing, no aromatherapy for me :(  I have an 11 yr old that I've never been able to smell and as a mother that is awful.  It is hazardous as well.  Once I had my neighbor come into my house and make sure it didn't smell like gas as I had turned on my oven and 20 minutes later it had not heated.  Sometimes I wonder if this is psychological.  I'm an adoptee put into a narcissistic family . . .  been awful.  I overate at first while trying to gain some sort of satisfaction, then lost the weight, now back up.  Once my kids are grown I doubt I'll eat much.  Nothing interesting about it, only eat now because I need to cook for them. Memories are attached to smell and there's nothing there for me.

[ddhopkins37]

I have the exact same problem as the result of a home invasion and assault 9 months ago.  I saw a specialist in smell and taste and he pretty much assured me there was an extremely low percentage of my smell ever returning.  It's  hard to be interested in eating many foods that used to taste so good.  Oh well.  What is worse is the area of my brain next to the nerves that were damaged was also damaged and that's much more debilitating than losing my smell.  That brain damage prevents me from working, concentrating, paying attention, has had major personality changes in me, and has taken away my short-term memory and insight.  I use a lot of hot sauce to "trick" the brain into thinking it is tasting when it is actually "feeling" flavors, but then have to be careful of my stomach.