Coronavirus: How do you live when you have no smell or taste?
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20 minutes
They would be 5% of the population to live without smell.
This loss can result from a head trauma, a congenital disease or certain drug treatments, for example.
"It is not the smells that I miss but the emotions that are linked to them", explains Emmanuel, anosmic since a head trauma following an assault in March 2019.
The consequences of this loss are significant, both from a psychological and social point of view.
The smell of croissants coming from the oven in front of a bakery, the scent of freshly cut grass or the aroma of a dish simmering in the kitchen.
All these scents, many people contaminated by Covid-19 are deprived of them.
Their anosmia (loss of smell) and ageusia (loss of taste) will mostly last only a few days, at worst a few months in the most severe cases.
But others have been experiencing this lack for much longer.
And they will have to live with it all their life.
Smell, sense of emotions and memories
"What traumatized me the most in my anosmia was never having been able to smell my son's scent," says Claire, who has lost this sense since a head trauma following an assault .
Not being able to breathe the scent of loved ones comes first when asked long-term anosmics about what they miss the most.
A logical reaction according to Jean-Michel Maillard, founder of the anosmie.org association, having lost this meaning following an accident.
“Smell is the sense of all our emotions”.
For these people, the loss is not just olfactory.
It itself creates other voids.
"It is not the smells that I miss but the emotions that are linked to them", explains Emmanuel, anosmic since a head trauma following an assault in March 2019. "To be cut off from odors is to be cut in particular of his memories ”, analyzes Jean-Michel.
“They're all in my head, but I have nothing left to trigger them.
"
Give up on many pleasures
Not recognizing the smell of the person you love can have serious repercussions on your private life.
“My anosmia had a huge impact on my libido.
As I no longer have any smell or taste, it's a bit as if my companion was not there physically ”, confides Laurent, an anosmic 40-year-old living in Belgium.
If these people are cut off from the smells of those they love, they do not recognize their own either.
Benjamin, a 20-year-old student who has not smelled since birth, did not understand the value of showering as a child.
He often dodged morning showers and waited until his teeth were visibly dirty before washing them.
“It got me into humiliating situations.
I almost felt like a "monster".
Since then, I am afraid of my own smell and I approach people less to avoid this kind of situation.
"
The risk of eating disorders
But body odor is far from the only reason that can lead to isolation.
Because if they no longer smell the smells that surround them, they cannot distinguish those which are on their plate either.
Ageusics differentiate textures and can recognize sweet, salty, sour and bitter.
But for the rest, nothing.
"I no longer have any pleasure in eating or drinking, although I loved doing wine tasting," says Claire.
This lack of taste pleasure can lead to eating disorders.
"Some people no longer eat and others eat more because satiety is also felt by the multiplicity of flavors", explains Jean-Michel.
A feeling of being cut off from the world
In this context, meals with friends - a must for socializing in France - are losing much interest.
“If we go to a restaurant, we can no longer comment on what is in our mouth.
So either we lie, or we do not talk about it but we automatically feel apart, ”admits Emmanuel.
By losing these two senses, anosmics frequently come to feel out of place.
“It's like I'm locked in a completely sterile glass bubble through which I can see people but not feel them.
A bit as if I lived in a parallel world or a bad dream from which I could wake up, ”testifies Laurent.
A feeling shared by Benjamin.
“I feel like I'm being left out of a world that is incredibly rich in different sensations, which I will never be able to understand or experience.
"
A high risk of depression
This feeling of being apart is not without consequences.
80% of people with this disorder have experienced or will experience severe depression in their lifetime, according to a study carried out in the United Kingdom in 2014. Claire and Laurent have been there.
The young woman fell very low the day a doctor told her that her anosmia was definitive.
“I couldn't see how great life could be without these two senses.
Laurent, meanwhile, is on antidepressants and recognizes that without his companion, he would probably no longer be there.
But relatives do not always provide the hoped-for help.
Many find it difficult to grasp the gravity of the situation and allow themselves to make jokes which strongly contribute to the feeling of incomprehension reigning in some anosmics.
A meaning whose importance is minimized?
“I am often told that I am lucky not to smell the metro.
But would you say to a blind man that he is lucky not to see trash cans?
»Laurent exasperates.
"People will see the 5% positive on the 95% negative in anosmia," says Emmanuel.
"In the eyes of society, smell is a sense that does not count", analyzes Jean-Michel Maillard.
He wants as proof the firefighters, cooks and other anosmic night watchmen present within his association.
“These people have professions that they would surely not be able to exercise if their professional entourage was aware of their disability.
But since no one asks them… ”
The technical advisor in a chocolate factory hopes that the coronavirus will help advance research on anosmia.
In the meantime, with its regional correspondents, they organize monthly hotlines to help each other and exchange views.
“Before discovering this association, I didn't know anyone with anosmic,” says Julian, a 74-year-old retiree, born without olfactory bulbs.
“I even knew what that term meant only ten years ago.
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