Smelt something unusual now terrifies

[wilcb003]

Recently i have been having terrible fears of developing schizophrenia after reading about it. i am hypersensitive to every sound and every little visual trick and it has been eating me up. This has manifested after a period of general anxiety.

Yesterday i was sitting up in bed with my window open and i got a very poignent smell, couldnt tell what it was, perfume or something sweet, i couldnt properly locate it. Anyway i read that schizoprhenics can have these hullucnations and so all day today i have been freaking myself out completely, convincing myself that i am going to develop schiz.

Can anyone offer anything here? :(

[venusbluejeans]

If you think you have schizophrenia then you don't as people with it would not ask if they had it or were developing it as they would just think of themselves as normal......so no I do not think you will develop schizophrenia or have anything to worry about with it.

[Fishmanpa]

Well...

My gf and I live in an older home (rental). Starting last year in the Spring (prior the beginning of my brush with cancer), I happened to notice a smell I could only equate as "old lady perfume" coming from the area I was sitting in in our living room. It would be very prominent for a few minutes then dissipate. This continued on through the summer and into the Fall. I never mentioned it to my gf for fear that she would think I was looney. Mind you, there are no adjoining walls or anything so it couldn't have been coming from a neighbor or anything like that.

I went on a business trip and when I returned we were talking and she said; "I had the strangest thing happen... I was sitting on the sofa (where I sit 90% of the time) and I noticed a perfume smell" My heart nearly stopped! I told her what had been happening and she agreed it smelled like "old lady perfume".

It continued until about 3-4 months ago and just as suddenly as it began it was over. We haven't smelled anything since April when I returned home from cancer treatment.

We don't know what it was but it was real. I personally believe it was my dead maternal grandmother keeping an eye on me :)

Concerning schizophrenia? Keep in mind we're all crazy. What differs is the degree of craziness. It's when we find someone equally as crazy as we are that we think they're normal. Truly, just because you smell something doesn't make you crazy I assure you ;)

"T"

[wilcb003]

Thanks guys. Big help :) have to say my anxiety has played some funny tricks on me. I might add that 2 nights previous when I was away my gran had stayed in my room since you mention that

[Freddiemercury]

Hi! Just thought I might be able to do some good here for once :P I am a neuropsychologist in the US and I just happen to specialize in schizophrenia. (Yes psychologists also have their own panic issues lol). I promise you do not have it. I agree with another poster...the fact that you even are concerned about this and have so much insight regarding it points to you not having it. Also, the idea that one day individuals with schizophrenia wake up and have some bizarre experience is very rare and very Hollywood. I have worked with these individuals and the majority of them have had issues since they were teens (being antisocial, learning difficulties, horrific family histories, drug abuse, etc) and were never quite "normal". I'm not saying the other version can't or doesn't happen, but it's extremely rare and that's for a disorder that's already rare. I feel your pain though. It's hard to get something out of our minds once it's in there and our mind completely convinces us of the worst. I think you are going to be okay :)

[wilcb003]

Thank you freddie. a huge help :) these are the sort of things i try to tell myself day after day but my anxiety/OCD always gets in the way and replaces any rationalism with doubt. to have the advice is a great comfort. thanks again!