British scientists studied the experiences of 9,000 Covid-19 patients who joined a Facebook support group set up by the charity group AbScent between March 24 and September 30. Many members said they had not only lost pleasure in eating, but also in socializing. The loss had weakened their bonds with other people, affecting intimate relationships and leaving them feeling isolated, even detached from reality.
— Another article, if you can stand it, about Covid-related anosmia. Read more in Some Covid Survivors Haunted by Loss of Smell and Taste at The New York Times. Hat tip to thomkallor!
Anosmia is my biggest covid related fear. Not rational as there are worse effects than that, but when has fear ever been rational?
I worry about it too. I think much of my concern is precisely because so many people don’t think it is significant. There seems to be very little medical knowledge about it, and I fear that if it did happen to me and I said anything about it at all, my concerns would be dismissed or trivialized. Aside from the fact that anosmia can in fact be life threatening (if, for example, you ate some spoiled food because you couldn’t tell that it was bad or you had an explosion from a gas leak that you couldn’t smell, or a fire got out of hand before you knew it was there because you couldn’t smell the smoke), it does impact our lives and experiences in many ways even when we are not consciously aware of it.
It scares me too, and I am glad papers are writing about it, but I don’t want to read any more articles about it — too scary and upsetting.
Yeah, I get really anxious reading these articles. I think it’s partly because most of the people interviewed never took particular notice of their sense of smell and are still miserable having lost it. I know how much it means to me, so how bad off would my mental state be?