I get searing sinus headaches when I'm around second-hand smoke or any sort of strong scent such as perfume or cologne. I used to be able to handle lotions, or sitting/standing next to a smoker friend or the lady doused in fragrance at church, but it just keeps getting worse. Even the moisturizer I use on my face (which is a very light scent, I've used the brand since I was a teenager)...a year ago I could handle it. I have noticed it getting worse, but the other night I got such an awful headache from it that I tossed and turned for an hour and had to go out to the corner store to get Tylenol PM to fall asleep. Does anyone have experience with this & worsening symptoms? What kind of medication do you take to get rid of the pain? Excedrin Migraine doesn't even work for me. It's starting to become a real annoyance on a day-to-day basis. Even the smallest scent - a whiff of cigarette smoke, a fragranced passerby at the mall - can set it off. It's really only cigarettes and perfumes, lotions, candles, etc. that bother me. I suppose artificial scents are just like that?
Strong lotion scents give me really bad headaches. Also, over powering car air fresheners give me horrible headaches.
I am super sensitive to scents. Of course I'm allergic to a lot of different things and have asthma. I think it's a good self defense mechanism because I have to watch for things that can trigger my asthma (cigarettes/cleaning products/perfumes).
brian_chapman's wife? srs though, I get the same thing from sunlight and my eyes. I have to wear sunglasses until the sun is completely down and some times after depending on how bright it is. Sucks cause I'm sure I look like a total dudebro, but the blinding headaches I get from not wearing them....much worse than being a dudebro.
I am sensitive to smells and can probably detect someone was in a closed up room just by their scent. I don't get them as badly as you do to the point of them hurting my head or sinuses, but I can follow a smell hound-like to its origin to determine where or what it is. Is it pressure on your nose, or a pulsating pain around it? Your turbinates might be sensitive from too much sneezing or too much blowing your nose. Seen an ENT specialist? Last time I went to one to see about my allergies, he advised to break my septum... I didn't like that at all. It left a bad taste in my ear nose and throat.
The only allergy I've been diagnosed with is dust mites. But that was like 10 years ago... It's my temples, right between my eyebrows, and either side of my nose that ache. sometimes pulsating, sometimes it's just constant pressure.
I get this on occasion, just as you described it. I got it much more when I was younger, though...I've kind of outgrew it. Add hair dye to the list- the smell of that stuff kills me. There's nothing I can take that helps. I just leave the area if I can and the headache goes away.
