Triggering Smell?!

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PiecesMended

Well-Known Member
#1
Okay so this may sound weird, I just want opinions or advice or whatever. Basically, I had a really rough time a while back now and I spent a good few weeks with hardly any sleep. I pretty much spent every night/morning in the dining room where the computer is whenever I could sneak down.
Now comes the weird part perhaps... We had this air freshener and I didn't think anything of it. I mean, it was a smell, why would I right? Well we stopped using it but recently we started using it again and everytime I walk past the room I can smell it and it just brings all the emotions flooding back and I'm starting to notice 'symptoms' that I'm supposed to tell someone about because they may indicate a 'relapse' into depression. I guess it's triggering for some reason?! I don't know what to do about it because I no longer have a therapist or psychiatrist to talk to.
Well that was longer than planned, my bad! :mhmm:
 

total eclipse

SF Friend
Staff Alumni
#2
Time to get rid of that dam air freshner often times sounds smells will trigger an emotion from the past I am sorry you have no one to talk to Can you talk to crisis line just to talk and tell them what is happening they are good listeners and can give you some good coping skills hugs to you
 
#3
i get triggered by smells, too.

is there someone you can talk to? like a doctor? do you think you are relapsing, or is it the smell that is setting you off?

and i agree with total eclipse. switch air fresheners!!!
 

black_rose_99

Well-Known Member
#4
Apparantly smell is one of the most influential triggers to bring back memories. Personally they don't often trigger me, but "they" say smell should, and who are we to argue with "them"?

Agree with the others - time to switch to one with no memories associated with it - maybe you can start to associate the new smell with nice memories and be triggered in a happy way in a few years??

xx
 

doityourself

Well-Known Member
#5
Yes get rid of the smell and try something out of your usual type, also if your having the urge, maybe moving the computer to a new spot will help to.

Hope your day gets better.
 

PiecesMended

Well-Known Member
#6
Thanks everyone, greatly apreciated! :smile:
I'm going to change the air freshener today because at first it was just when I smelt it but now I feel like that alot so maybe I am relapsing... Wow, I had no idea that a smell could do that! :ohmy:
 

icequeen

Well-Known Member
#7
i can relate 100% with you on the smell issue, i have a real prob with smell triggers, partic food. all i can say is what my psych told me and that is to expose yourself to the smell for as long as poss as often as poss as whilst it may trigger whatever, the level of anxiety has to come down, even if it takes days weeks or however long. if you ignore it it will continue to trigger. maybe worth a try and perhaps have someone with you. good luck :hugtackles:
 

PiecesMended

Well-Known Member
#8
i can relate 100% with you on the smell issue, i have a real prob with smell triggers, partic food. all i can say is what my psych told me and that is to expose yourself to the smell for as long as poss as often as poss as whilst it may trigger whatever, the level of anxiety has to come down, even if it takes days weeks or however long. if you ignore it it will continue to trigger. maybe worth a try and perhaps have someone with you. good luck :hugtackles:
That's a really interesting idea and actually makes more sense than just getting rid of it because I was wondering the other day, what am I supposed to do if someone else had the same air freshener, I couldn't just ask them to get rid of it! I'll try this with help. Thank you! :smile:
 

bluegrey

Antiquities Friend
#9
I think odors are supposed to be the most powerful triggers of memory but music has always best transported me back to a memory. When I was four I lived in a hotel room with my mother and brother next to a donut shop. My parents were separating and it was a particularly stressful time. To this day, decades later, smelling donuts makes me nauseous and triggers anxiety.
 

PiecesMended

Well-Known Member
#10
I think it's all very strange yet interesting... Also I'm mad now because my mum has just informed me that she's just been turning it off when I'm not home. Of course I decided to come home early today and got a really unexpected blast of it. I wouldn't mind but she told me that she got rid of it completely. :grr:
 

icequeen

Well-Known Member
#11
just wondered how you getting on...it doesnt really matter what your trigger is...exposure therapy is (apparently) proven to help reduce the effects...you have to expose yourself to your trigger, whatever it is, and you will of course go through anxiety but the more you do it, the less you react..but you have to do it consistently and repeatedly otherwise you just reinforce the avoidance/trigger. i am currently going through exposure therapy for multiple triggers and it can be horrendous but am trying to stick with it even tho it seems counter productive, but keep exposing yourself to the smell for as long as poss...let the anxiety come and mark it 0 - 10 each time...eventually (according to my therapist) the anxiety has to reduce enough to let you be exposed to it yet let you cope with it. i am not that far yet...but the theory makes sense. set yourself 5 min targets and ranking your anxiety and keep going up to 1 hr. try and do it if not more than once a day at least everyday. hope it helps to know you not alone :shelbi:
 
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