| All human beings communicate [as do animals, reptiles | | | | from home to home. |
| and birds] through sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. | | | | A person who was born without a sense of smell |
| To not have any of these senses is to be considered | | | | doesn't need to be told. They knew it the first time |
| disabled. Lack of sight or sound is to be blind or deaf. | | | | someone close by let go with some bodily wind and |
| Lack of the sense of touch is called Somatosensory | | | | they looked around mystified while everybody else |
| deficit or disability. Lack of the sense of taste is known | | | | groaned, moaned, and blocked their noses from the |
| as ageusia and the lack of the sense of smell is called | | | | smell. "What smell?" says the anosmic. |
| anosmia. Each of these disabilities is a communication | | | | The late-onset anosmic [usually as a cause of illness |
| disorder. | | | | or head-injury] knows it when all of a sudden their food |
| Anosmia, or the lack of a sense of smell, often seems | | | | tastes bland. This sudden loss is known to cause |
| - to those people whose olfactory systems are in | | | | depression, anger and affect appetite. Suffers swing |
| perfect working order - to be the easiest | | | | between eating too much in a search for what they've |
| communication disorder to live with. Yet, ask anyone | | | | lost or not eating enough because their food tastes like |
| who has had their sense of smell taken away from | | | | "soggy paper" or worse. Taste is approximately 75% |
| them and you'll find that this sense is seriously | | | | flavor. Flavor is smell. |
| underrated and taken for granted. | | | | The person without the sense of smell needs other |
| It's quite true that no sense of smell means the | | | | people to know it. Imagine the alienation, just for a |
| sufferer misses out on the full impact of such delicious | | | | moment, if you were the only one in your family who |
| odours as rotting meat or hour-old baby poo. It means | | | | couldn't see or hear, but nobody believed you. |
| a drive past the local garbage dump is no better or | | | | Anosmics the world over have this happen to them |
| worse than a drive past a field of wildflowers. Body | | | | constantly. The blind or deaf person is not required to |
| odour has no impact and bodily gas expulsions are a | | | | constantly prove their disability. The anosmic does. |
| complete non-entity. | | | | Friends and family of the blind and deaf do not forget |
| The other side of the coin is, of course, that | | | | that their loved ones cannot see or hear. Friends and |
| fresh-baked bread also means nothing, flowers are | | | | family of anosmics repeatedly forget. |
| perfumeless, and the smell of love-partner or child | | | | The blind and deaf do not hide their disability. The |
| leaves no impression at all. | | | | anosmic quite often feels the need to do exactly that. |
| Smells trigger memories and feelings, evoke empathy, | | | | A blind person does not have their disability trivialized |
| explore social atmospheres. Without smell, the anosmic | | | | nor are they told "it's all in their head". Too many |
| has no or restricted access to these important facets | | | | anosmics, unfortunately, do [even by doctors who |
| of daily life. Pheromones, the almost undetectable | | | | really should know better]. |
| scents that cause attraction between humans, are a | | | | I do not for a second wish to imply that vision or |
| lost cause on the anosmic. Clueless is often an apt | | | | hearing impairment is an "easy" disability. They are far |
| description for the person who cannot detect the | | | | from it. I use them simply to show the invisibility of |
| "changes in the atmosphere" caused by human | | | | anosmia, and for that matter ageusia and the extra |
| interaction. | | | | difficulties sufferers of both deal with. Such social |
| A dangerous side to being anosmic exists as well: | | | | difficulties and the effect they have on self-esteem |
| anosmics can not smell anything, gas leaks, chemicals, | | | | and self-image impact, to varying degrees, on mental |
| smoke, rotten food, or soured liquids. Being able to | | | | health. Many ageusics [people without the sense of |
| smell these hazards saves lives just as often as being | | | | taste] suffer in similar ways to anosmics. Often the |
| able to see or hear impending danger. Anosmics need | | | | two disorders go hand in hand, especially if caused by |
| sensors in their houses that can detect and warn of | | | | head injury. |
| gas or smoke and that can pick up the odour of | | | | Anosmics do not need their own carspaces or even |
| dangerous airborne chemicals. They need more than | | | | for the most part require special treatment. They do |
| their own experience to help with detecting turned | | | | need awareness, support, solutions and respect from |
| food or liquids. They also need recognition that they | | | | friends, family and doctors. What help is there for |
| need these things and, if necessary, the financial help | | | | anosmics? Ask anyone afflicted with this disorder and |
| to acquire portable sensors that can travel with them | | | | they'll tell you, pitifully little. |