Smell Cravings/ Pica Disorder

[NatsuChannieChan]

On 10/3/2007 at 10:04 PM, tina said:

I am a 40 yr old female with a sudden craving for chemical smells. I don't know where this came from, but for some reason I'm severely craving smells. I can watch a commercial on household cleaners and my mouth just waters! I don't get high from the smells. I am not pregnant and I do not do drugs. I just can't get over this sudden urge to sniff everything that has harsh chemicals in it. I went to a tire store the other day to smell the tire showcase. I would drink Pine Sol, but I know it would hurt me. I want to eat dirt and love to get behind old trucks leaking black exhausts!! What is this all about?! I'm really concerned about this. I haven't resorted to eating any of these toxic materials, but the craving I have for them scares me!

I realize this is from 2007 and it is now 2020, but I feel the EXACT same way. Granite I’m very young and have been eating ice for I don’t even know how long, however more recently I’ve found myself to want to smell rubbing alcohol, strong hand sanitizers, air fresheners and even gasoline. I know drinking these things would be absolutely harmful and horrible so instead I have resorted to smelling rubbing alcohol/hand sanitizer or air freshener and then eating crushed ice, or any ice really. My mouth waters for things like this and I have no idea why. You’re the only person that has hit the nail on the head with how it feels. I’ve looked it up before and am questioning if it’s Pica or not. 

[ChemicalsICrave]

I enjoy smelling chemical smells like Windex, bleach, nail polish, etc. I also enjoy the smell of brand new shoes...everytime I visit a shoe store, I'm in heaven! I even smell mascara, but mostly waterproof mascara because it has more of a chemical smell than regular. I like the smell of moist potting soil and musty basements and garages. I enjoy smelling brand new handbags because of the chemical smell inside. I like the smell of new clothing and brand new electronics out of the box (box smells good inside too!). Oh and don't forget wet pavement!

[Philip fisher]

I am a 50 year old male. I can't get enough of damp musty smells. Old damp smelling mop heads in particular. I also love the smell of damp forest riverside in winter, compost, and boat engine rooms. Apart from the last, I think I am dealing with a very similar microbe causing the smell. I have gone to the extreme of specially prepping a mop by keeping it moist. Day 1 is a little too wet dog smell but by day 2 it starts to smell good to my degenerate sense of smell.

ChemicalsICrave: tell me about it! Musty basement smells, absolutely. And for me too, disinfectant, even bleach. I used to hate bleach.

[Joe Farrell]

Me too... Wow, didn't know this was a thing... Just started having crazy craving for petroleum based products, gasoline, especially hot gasoline engines, cars or lawnmowers, and asphalt. Hot asphalt... Seems like it all started when the city repaved my street with asphalt in August, with it being so hot and the sun shining on it, it emitted a strong petroleum (bitumen) smell... I just started... Loving it. Always liked the smell of gas at gas stations, and new shoes-new wallets, but I've never felt the need to constantly smell it, or go out of my way- I've been turning on the lawnmower just to let it get hot and kick out a bunch of exhaust that I can enjoy.. when it's hot I'll turn it off and smell all around the engine. I've even went to where asphalt mixer trucks sit at night, and scraped up the gooiest, tarriest, chunks of oily asphalt, bring it home and heat it up on a little camping stove just to get those wonderful fumes.. I don't get high, but I'm still worried about it affecting my health or brain. I've been planning on telling a doctor and see what they say...

[Sensei]

2 hours ago, Joe Farrell said:

Just started having crazy craving for petroleum based products, gasoline, especially hot gasoline engines, cars or lawnmowers, and asphalt. (...) I don't get high, but I'm worried about it affecting my health or brain. I've been planning on telling a doctor and see what they say...

Petroleum products are carcinogenic..

https://www.google.com/search?q=Petroleum+products+are+carcinogenic

Edited October 8, 2021 by Sensei

[Slendur]

I am not a doctor. Just a patient who felt tremendous relief to find out from a doctor based on lab results that I wasn't insane.  I am sharing my own personal experience. Iron deficiency anemia caused my pica. For me it was olfactory only and it was solvents. If you have weird cravings please see a doctor and get diagnosed it can save your life especially if you have a GI bleed that is causing the anemia.  

[Philip fisher]

On 3/3/2021 at 7:21 PM, ChemicalsICrave said:

I enjoy smelling chemical smells like Windex, bleach, nail polish, etc. I also enjoy the smell of brand new shoes...everytime I visit a shoe store, I'm in heaven! I even smell mascara, but mostly waterproof mascara because it has more of a chemical smell than regular. I like the smell of moist potting soil and musty basements and garages. I enjoy smelling brand new handbags because of the chemical smell inside. I like the smell of new clothing and brand new electronics out of the box (box smells good inside too!). Oh and don't forget wet pavement!

Thanks for your reply and sharing your experience! Isn't it odd that a damp bacterial smell can be as enjoyable as the smell of an agent designed to combat that bacteria. I also used to hate the smell of bleach but now I love it. Not straight from the bottle, but diluted with hot water and used to mop the floor. There's also a particular brand of anti bacterial surface cleanser spray that I use to spray my favourite damp smelly cloth which I then bunch up into a tight ball and stash in a plastic bag to mature a day or two lol. Oh yes...wet pavement? absolutely. Certain rainfall smells are wonderful - when the air is thick with it. Btw, and Fyi: there's a lot of talk on forums about the connection between addiction to unusual smells inc chemical and/or damp and moldy...and the connection to chronic low iron in the body. This is the second time I'm going through a phase of daily damp cloth sniffing and the second time I'm going through a phase of extreme fatigue - and last time this happened I was kept in hospital for weeks for my iron deficiency. Just be aware in case this also applies to you. Blood tests....

 

On 10/8/2021 at 12:34 PM, Joe Farrell said:

Me too... Wow, didn't know this was a thing... Just started having crazy craving for petroleum based products, gasoline, especially hot gasoline engines, cars or lawnmowers, and asphalt. Hot asphalt... Seems like it all started when the city repaved my street with asphalt in August, with it being so hot and the sun shining on it, it emitted a strong petroleum (bitumen) smell... I just started... Loving it. Always liked the smell of gas at gas stations, and new shoes-new wallets, but I've never felt the need to constantly smell it, or go out of my way- I've been turning on the lawnmower just to let it get hot and kick out a bunch of exhaust that I can enjoy.. when it's hot I'll turn it off and smell all around the engine. I've even went to where asphalt mixer trucks sit at night, and scraped up the gooiest, tarriest, chunks of oily asphalt, bring it home and heat it up on a little camping stove just to get those wonderful fumes.. I don't get high, but I'm still worried about it affecting my health or brain. I've been planning on telling a doctor and see what they say...

Hi Joe, making it a mission, a fetch quest to acquire asphalt to then specially prepare for a good old prolonged sniff session? that sounds like a similar intensity of need to mine. I prep various damp tea cloths and bath towels and scrunch them up and stick them in plastic bags. Sometimes add a little more water, or spray with my favourite anti bac spray. Every few hours, these items are ready and smelly enough for me to hold to my face, almost like I'm try to chloroform myself into unconsciousness. If i were you, unless already done, I would go tell a doctor and get your iron levels checked. Every time I go through one of these addictive phases, it coincides with a bodily energy crisis. Extreme low energy, so fatigued I can barely climb a flight of stairs. Last time it happened, a few years ago, I was hospitalised for over a month while they kept me on a drip to replace the iron in my body. If you check out other similar chats, you'll find the same thing mentioned again and again - iron deficiency. And something called "pica" - which is the compulsion to seek out odd smells. Now, if you think about it, if we're going to all this lengths to find the smell we crave - the body feels it needs it, yes? It needs something that can be satisfied, or feels like it can be satisfied, by sniffing hot asphalt or evil stinky tea towels. Your body doesn't need asphalt. Mine doesn't need damp mildew. There's not one doctor or health website that will prescribe you a nice tasty tarmac brew, or an asphalt health supplement. Similarly, I've every reason to believe that if I were to somehow create a few mils of concentrated solution of the damp moldy crap in my tea towels, and bang it up, I'd probably kill myself. So, I reckon it must be that certain odours help the brain or some other organ to release chemicals that make us feel good. Personally, I know through experience that if I've been smoking a little too much of something I maybe shouldn't have, then burying my face in a smelly old mop brings me back down to a calm level (that may have just as much to do with the benefits of regular breathing, but it's funny that I instantly want to dive for the cupboard under the sink rather than sit cross legged and think of my favourite mantra, huh). If you haven't already done so, please go get yourself checked out in case it's an iron deficiency.

[guidoLamoto]

Amusing thread.

Just  a warning  (from a retired physician)-  pica- the craving to eat non-food items= often signal a vitsmin or mineral deficiency. Clay pica was very common in The South prior to WWII when malnutrition was fairly widespread...Craving to eat corn starch, for some reason, usually signals iron deficieency,

Olfactory hallucinations or cravings can also mean intracranial lesions- tumors, abscesses, strokes and such.

While Fe-deficiency is common and easy enough to treat (Fe pills) it's cause should ALWAYS be tracked down. Healthy people don't get Fe deficiency. There's ALWAYS a "cause." The may be as benign as heavy menstrual flow or hiatus hernia, but serious things like peptic disease, and especially GI tumors need to be excluded  and treated.

NEVER take Fe supplements unless instructed to do so by your doc who has done a complete work up to make a diagnosis...If you have, say, a colon cancer that weeps blood a drop a day, and you;re taking supplements on your own, you won't develop the anemia easily caught on your yearly screening blood work.  Suspicion won't arise, and focused testing won't be done and a diagnosis will be missed until you have a football growing out from under your ribs. Too late. Too bad.

Oh, BTW- olfactory "cravings" more often than not are traced to psych problems, not physical pathology.