Olfactory Memories Both Good and Bad: Another Trauma Trigger

Here are some smells to imagine.

Imagine the smell of freshly baked chocolate cookies. Imagine the smell of hot cider filled with cinnamon. Imagine the perfume you prefer to wear or that you prefer to smell. Imagine the scent of good wine . Imagine the smell of snow. Imagine positive smells in your life — from childhood forward.

Now shift to negative smells.

Imagine the smell of a fire. Imagine if your parents were literally burning currency in your presence. Imagine how a home would smell after being burnt to the ground. Imagine the smell of sewers and overflowing toilets. Imagine the smell of rotting food. Imagine smells that make you cringe.

Why Smells Matter

Leave aside the loss of smell from COVID and other illnesses. The data show that we remember smells more clearly and vividly than visual or auditory memories. That reality surprised me. This means that smells matter, and we can recollect smells both good and bad. But, the research shows that we remember bad smells more commonly than good smells.

And, smells (both good and bad) can take us back to earlier moments in our lives and remind us of past times. Some people may remember the smell of cooking at their grandmother’s home, even if she is now long deceased. And a current cooking smell (say making a similar recipe) may bring you back in time. I remember Inez cooking spaghetti and meatballs, which remain my favorite food and the only food I could eat when I was pregnant.

The flip side is true as well. Current smells can take us back to earlier bad memories, reviving negative events in our lives. And, we can be “triggered” by those current smells that evoke memories of smells that signal bad events/people.

The reason this matters is that in the context of trauma, we often talk about triggers — or retriggering. This refers to current events that hit a tuning fork in our past and send off an outsized reaction in the present, often without our even knowing why we are so out of sorts.

I have often explained to groups that a current trial or investigation about a sexual assault that appears in the media can remind someone about an early sexual assault earlier in one’s life that may have been buried in some cabinet, tightly locked away. For some women, the Kavanaugh hearings and the testimony of Dr. Blasey Ford evoked memories of earlier sexual assaults they had not processed, let alone recalled.

So, here’s the point: if negative smells can be remembered with such power, it is likely that smells can be retriggered — setting off a smell induced tuning fork orchestra. And, it is also possible that even the mention of an event or a person can send off an olfactory memory. We need to pay attention, then, to our olfactory memories as they may hold lots of keys to our past.

My Late Mother

My biological mother from whom I was estranged, recently passed away although I mourned her death as my real mother decades ago. I have been reflecting on her and her life. In doing so, I was struck by an olfactory memory. My late mother had a musty, stale and almost pungent order to her and her clothes. Her closet exuded the same offensive odor and when she was confined to her bed with mental illness on many occasions, her room had the same odor. It was unmistakable. And I remember it. Vividly. And, with her passing, the smell memory did not pass; it remains as pungent as ever. She left me a smell memory — forever.

I assume that people’s odors stay on their clothes and in their closets which may explain why many widows and widowers keep items of their deceased spouses in their original closets. They like the smell because it serves as a reminder of their lost wife/husband. Indeed, a former partner of mine used to say he liked my clothes hanging in a closet in his house because the smell on them would create positive thoughts of me even if I was not there. My scent was there and that was enough to keep him happy until we were next together.

People’s Olfactory Signals

The research shows that it is not only objects or events that have smells and produce smell memories. People have smells. People with illnesses have particular smells that can be diagnostic in nature. The smells that attract one person to another may be undetectable to another person. I still remember a man in my life from long ago who had the smell of baby powder and I could have buried my face in his chest constantly. Forget that we were not a match made in Heaven.

There are other smells I have encountered in my past that are not so pleasant. There were men with some sort of offensive odor that permeated their clothing. They were not attractive to me because of how they smelled, not how they looked. And, I remember those smells to this day, some 4 decades later.

Trauma and Smell

My research on our olfactory system suggests that we need to pay attention to the smells remembered by those who have been traumatized. Ponder a soldier who experienced the smell of war. Ponder children in Uvalde who experienced the smell of gunfire. Ponder the people at the Highland Park July 4th parade who remember the smell of blood. And, for people with childhood trauma, perhaps they have memories of the smell of alcohol or vomit or drugs and leather straps used to hit them or siblings.

Here’s the point: our olfactory memories can haunt us. We need to pay attention to those and deal with those olfactory memories. They may be clues to what we have locked away in mental cabinets that we cannot open or chose not to open or do not even know exist in our minds. And, if we want to move forward, we need to process those cabinets. Otherwise, the past will trample the present (and deny the future).

https://karengrossedu.medium.com/mental-cabinets-and-mental-health-e5748945165c

But, on the good news side, there are the positive smells we recognize too — which may explain our attraction to certain people and places. We know that some smells make us relax and feel good and enable us to sleep better. Consider the use of positive smells to ease trauma symptomology. And, even absent trauma, we use scents to create an atmosphere that is welcoming and positive. I have often used pine smells (candles; pine cones; scent oil) and people have commented on how coming to my home evokes positive feelings of warmth and comfort.

We know that positive childhood experiences (PCEs) can offset adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), thought the research is ongoing as to what and how many PCEs are needed to offset what ACEs. Perhaps this can be applied to olfactory memories: good smells in one’s past can offset negative smells, enabling us to navigate the negative smells more effectively. The research awaits.

Next Steps

Bottom line: our olfactory memories have important roles in understanding our past and our present and even our future. We need to pay attention to them. The old saying “We Need to Stop and Smell the Roses” may have greater meaning that we previously acknowledged. We don’t just need to pause to smell; we need to pause and smell to acknowledge parts of our past and as a guide to moving us forward with ameliorated trauma. We need to appreciate how what we smell can affect us widely and deeply, lasting beyond most other forms memories can take.

And, we need more research as to how to process negative olfactory memories so we can move forward. Recognition of olfactory memory is the first step in that process. The next steps are the ones we still need to learn more about and use and share. We can start by thinking about this in the context of Uvalde and Highland Park. Those affected by these events need us to help them, including with their negative olfactory memories.