Hi all - I have been suffering from phantosmia now for around 5 years.
I first recall the problem when I walked to a pub in the next village
at around the time of my birthday in February. It was a cold,
winter's day and the pub had a real log fire - but a lot of wood smoke
was escaping into the room. It actually smelled good and welcoming on
such a cold day. And then the smell of that wood smoke stayed with me
for weeks and weeks. It would not go away.

But then it occurred to me that I had suffered mild phantosmia for a
while anyway without being concerned about it. For example, in my
home office I had been smelling a faint trace of overheating
electronics - I thought I may have a problem with some of the computer
equipment, but my wife smelled nothing. I just put it down to me
being more sensitive.

So therefore I have what I regard as two types of phantosmia.
Firstly, the classic one smelling something that doesn't exist -
usually a variation on burning substances like cigarette smoke
(usually stale cigarette smoke) or exhaust fumes, woodsmoke and
occasionally burned food / cooking type of thing. And when a smell
developes it keeps me company for two to three weeks typically. And
it's never anything pleasant like roses, strawberries or spaghetti sauce.

Secondly - I have this phenomenon where, firstly, there is a real and
pronounced smell stimulus - and then that particular smell is
perceived for maybe weeks afterwards. A good example comes to mind
when recently I was looking for a second-hand car. I sat inside to
check out the interior condition and it was immediately obvious that
the previous owner was a heavy smoker. The car dealer had cleaned the
car and had attempted to mask the stale smoke smell with some kind of
perfumed spray. The combined smell of the old smoke coupled with the
pretty nasty masking spray was not at all pleasant. And this mixture
of smells stayed with me for about a month. It went away, only to be
re-stimulated during a visit to a hotel alittle while ago. We checked
in to find that the room (although a non-smoking room) had been
occupied by a smoker; you could smell that sweet, stale smoke easily.
We moved to a different room - only for me to smell the same thing
there too - with my wife assuring me that the new room was free of the
cigarette smell.

On finding this group, I had a look back through a large number of
postings but haven't yet read of anyone else with this 'persistence of
smell' problem.

Anyone?

Regards,

Derek