Answer Summary

Members connected over the shared experience of phantom smells with fibromyalgia, with cigarette smoke being the most commonly reported scent,... Read more

Members connected over the shared experience of phantom smells with fibromyalgia, with cigarette smoke being the most commonly reported scent, followed by rotting eggs, exhaust fumes, and even comforting scents like a late parent's pipe tobacco. Several members described having an unusually keen sense of smell that allows them to detect real odors others miss, while others experience true phantom smells that have no source, a phenomenon some identified as phantosmia that appears increasingly common among people with fibromyalgia. A recurring theme was the curiosity and reassurance members felt in discovering they weren't alone in this strange symptom, with some members finding patterns like smells preceding symptom flares or waking them at night.