We had a pretty bad heatwave today and my husband decided to close us off in our room with the AC on. We've used it before with no issues but this time there was an overwhelming smell of paint coming from it. He said it was probably just the plastic of the air conditioner heating up or something, but I don't believe that since its never made that smell before. I tried to ignore it hoping he was right and that the smell would go away if we left it on, but after about 45 minutes I couldn't take the smell anymore and my nose felt like it was burning. I had a mild headache and some moderate nausea going on. I ended up leaving the room and doing some googling only to find out that this smell can come from a freon leak and and can be fatal if you're breathing it in too long. We turned off the AC and aired out the room, but I'm so paranoid that it could still be leaking even while its off. It doesn't smell anymore, but apparently freon doesn't have much of a smell in smaller doses. I called poison control while I was panicky and the lady I spoke with told me I was probably fine as long as my symptoms improved. This was hours ago but I'm still being my usual paranoid self. My nausea is gone but I've still got a headache. I tend to get headaches pretty frequently these days though. The thing that worries me most is that recently I've had headaches worse than any I've had before and I've gone through bouts of extreme fatigue and muscle aches.. This is gonna sound real dramatic but I'm worried our AC has possibly been leaking this whole time and poisoning me. The thing is, all I can do right now is turn it off. I live in an apartment so I can't just leave it outside until I have someone come over and look at it because it would probably just get stolen and if its not broken and it really was just plastic smell, I don't want to let a 300 dollar AC get stolen. So I'm stuck with it in my apartment possibly leaking and giving me anxiety. I know I probably sound ridiculous right now, I guess I just want some reassurance.. I can never tell if these headaches I get are actually a sign of something being wrong or just all the stress my anxiety causes me. I hope you all can forgive me for posting so much recently.. Its like its always something else and I never get a break.