It smells like soap until four steps away from the bathroom door. Cooked dust takes over. Another few steps, old diaper. Simon hasn't been changed yet this morning. These bagels always smell a little like fish as they're toasting. The clothes are clean, the laundry room doesn't smell like moist cloth anymore, now it smells like dirty concrete. Coffee. Sweat. Earwax. Earwax? I need a q-tip.
On my way to the bustop, it's cold and clear, it smells like leaves. It's lovely. Around the corner, and it's gasoline. I pass the man who I see every morning, try not to inhale as I pass. His cologne is strong, I smell it all along the sidewalk he walked on.
Old smoke on the bus, apple scented shampoo, or hairspray. Powdered make up. A dusty paperback. Someone needs to wash the food and sweat out of their jacket.
This - this is only one of the external senses in about fifteen minutes of my day. Most people either can't smell some of these things, or the smell registers with their nervous system below awareness, is disregarded, and never noticed. Young kids with SPD experience this but don't understand it, don't know how it affects their level of stress, of awareness, of irritability, their focus, or appetite.
Touch and sound have always seemed to be the biggest problems for myself and Simon, but as I learn more about SPD and focus more on how we get through each day, I've seen that smells have a huge impact as well. It makes sense, smell affects taste and memory in strong ways for everyone, SPD or not, why wouldn't impact our sensory selves as well? If nothing else, it would still be exhausting to smell, register, and try to manually dismiss every one of these smells. Smell is not an unknown sense like vestibular, proprioceptive, and interocpetion, but it may be a forgotten or overlooked sense in terms of the affect it has on ourselves and our SPD Kids.
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