This page contains all the readers’ comments on the “Emotion-smell and emotion-taste” article, received between 2022 and 2026.
Comment
by: Anonymous. August 7, 2022 at 1:10 PM
I think my
“concept-smell” synesthesia IS actually emotion-taste synesthesia because
sometimes I can picture an image and both taste and smell is triggered for that
image. It’s the same taste and smell for that image (or verbal description
which causes me to picture an image) each time, but if I don’t have an
emotional response to it or if the image or picture in my head isn’t clear or
invested, my synesthesia isn’t triggered.
Reply
by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). August 15, 2022 at 9:16 PM
That's very
interesting and says something about the importance of emotions to the
synesthetic experience: sometimes it's difficult to distinguish whether the
real inducer of a synesthetic experience is a consistent emotion felt, even
when it appears to be something else. I think this is the case for me too, with
some things like smelling or tasting music for example: the same kind of music
produces the same emotion and bingo! It has a taste or smell. If the
circumstances mean you don't get that emotion, the apparent synesthetic inducer
won't give you the taste or smell. Thank you for commenting!
Comment
by: Anonymous. August 7, 2022 at 1:11 PM
It happens
OFTEN but not every single time.
Comment
by: Anonymous. December 21, 2023 at 7:57 AM
I only just
realised that I maybe smell my own emotions. I came to a holiday stay I like,
and it smells like a friend who had given me a very relaxed feeling in a very
stressful situation. I checked out all the fragrance oils and none of them have
that smell. I thought “am I smell relaxation? That would be a strange form of
synesthesia! “ Then I found this article, and I remembered my first and second
husbands smelled the same to me, and both started with no smell(soap, laundry
powder smell excluded). So I can also smell either attachment or commitment. I
normally sensitive to all sorts of real stuff too, so never thought my feelings
were mixed in it!
Comment
by: Anonymous. May 18, 2024 at 10:02 PM
Hello, I'm
not sure how long has this been posted or if you can still see this. I just
wanted to share my personal experience of affective-olfactory synesthesia. I
actually just found out about it today as well. You see, back in 2022, I used
to smell love, whether while I was watching a movie or seeing two people
obviously in love. I really don't remember how it smelled now, and even if I
remember it, I can't really describe the smell. However, I can remember that
it's a strong smell and it basically smelled like love for me. I used to think
that there might have had a problem with my nose or brain, but I also thought I
had a superpower or something like that. Unfortunately, I can't smell it now.
But earlier today, I smelled something that I smelled years ago while
rewatching my favorite Kdrama. I also smelled something like sweet but not too
sweet when I saw the second female lead.
Reply
by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). May 19, 2024 at 8:47 AM
Hey, that's
interesting! Maybe you could even reactivate it a bit by focusing on it and
being more conscious of it in your day-to-day life, because in my experience
synesthesias with a smell concurrent can disappear and then come back
sometimes, and be much stronger at certain times in your life or on certain
days.
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Comment
by: Anonymous. December 29, 2024 at 9:01 PM
I have sort
of an inverse version of this, certain foods taste like emotions or sensations,
therefore, there's some foods I can't stand, both sweet pepper and celery taste
like violence/agression, cucumber tastes like sobbing. On the other hand,
vanilla and caramel taste like hugs.
Comment
by: Jussynda Burns. February 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I remember
that I used to smell contentedness and sleepiness. I don't know if this stopped
or if I haven't felt those particular ways in awhile, but I've also been sick
recently. Maybe that messed with it. Regardless, I miss this. Especially
because I have a hard time identifying my emotions, so it helped
Comment
by: Anonymous. May 1, 2025 at 10:48 PM
I've been
smelling emotions my whole life, and when I describe it to others, they mistake
it for nostalgia. My two children are associated with their own smell in my
brain, that I smell when I think of them. My son smells like hot sand and air,
my daughter like a heady perfume. Music makes smells in my brain, too.
Comment
by: Anonymous. July 30, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I have
emotion-odor synesthesia, but I don’t just smell my own emotions, I smell other
people’s emotions too so I want to share my experience with it.
For
example, I can often tell if someone is depressed, cuz negative emotions have a
strong, disturbing smell.the more sadness someone carries, the stronger the
scent. Meanwhile, happiness has a soft, barely noticeable smell.
One day, my
father left the house. I entered his room and suddenly smelled something like
exhaustion filling the space. It affected me deeply, and later my father
confirmed he had been very tired.this ability is mentally exhausting. I sense
emotions quickly, even without words.
To cope, I
use tricks like eating mint candy to mask the smell temporarily, going outside,
or avoiding negative people, cuz their emotions can affect me too.
Comment
by: Anonymous. October 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I have this
exactly. I can smell others' emotions and I would describe it exactly as you
have described it. Emotions don't smell like other things. Depression is the
strongest and has its own distinct smell. It's a bit different for each person
as everyone already has their own unique smell. But I agree that happiness and
other positive emotions barely smell at all. So interesting to hear someone
else describe this phenomenon.
Comment
by: Anonymous. January 11, 2026 at 5:06 PM
For me,
fear (including anxiety) tastes metallic, like iron. And grief tastes
unbearably sweet. Like, when you've eaten too much cake mix.
Comment
by: Anonymous. March 14, 2026 at 8:53 PM
I believe
that I have emotion- smell synesthesia, and it makes emotions very nuanced to
me and I also really easily feel misrepresented if someone simply ask me if say
I feel happy, because they are usually connected to a smell that appears when
I'm experiencing the emotion. But the thing is the smell doesn't stay, it will
leave it's impression for a short amount of time but then it kind of just feels
like the background, but t's the same recurring smell when I experience the
same emotion. For example I've struggled with depression in different degrees
and Im actually scared of smelling different states. Because it feels like
sometimes I just wake up to a new day and then I can be hit by a really strong
smell (not externally based) and then I will realise my emotional state, like I
actually know how I feel by the smell I'm smelling. So I get scared of the
smell do the worst state in depression, and I've tried just waking up one day
and smelling it and then feeling so much grief realising that that's the smell
I had back when I felt the same way.
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