What's it like having synesthesia?
A blessing and a little cursed. My synesthesia is 2 types:
Touch/Smell: i can smell with my skin. This one is superfrickin rare. It feels like a little superpower when it triggers. For example, i can put my hand in an old oven mitt and smell whatever old juice/scents it'd soaked up like i was pressing it up against my nose.
One time i sat on a spot on the couch and the back of my shirt rolled up and i smelled the urine from when our dog had pissed there 3 months ago with the skin on my lower back. No one else could smell it, even if they got within a foot to smell it.
JUMPED OFF THERE R E A L Q U I C K
This however and be a mixed blessing in relation to my job. I'm a Massage Therapist so when that shared neuron chain triggers while I'm working, i either smell the lotion I'm using (which is only neutrally scented), my patient's EXTREME BODY ODOR, or their perfume/soap. Sometimes the inside of my own shoes if they're particularly sweaty.
Lemme tell ya im SUPER SELF CONSCIOUS when it comes to how i smell bc of this. So whenever someone tells me i smell good, my automatic response is : "Thanks I try really hard actually."
And then I have the more common one, Grapheme-colored synesthesia, where colors are associated with concepts. Like "Thursday is Blue" which is interesting, but only helpful artistically for coming up with themes for stories/characters/ and matching them to patterns.
I also just learned Misphonia is a thing, which some scientists think is related to synesthesia, where you have violent negative reactions to certain sounds and boy oh boy is that true.
Certain loud or grating sounds make me jump like a cat or whip around and scream at the offending person or object that made them.
So that may be related, they say. But being a Synnie is pretty interesting bc you get a lot of extra sensations.