Strength In Numbers

Hello I'm still here! I've decided to keep posting my posts on here also. So you will find them on my Wordpress Site and this one. You have a choice ;-)

If it wasn’t for the support of others, I don’t know where I would be right now. Not as strong and positive as I am that’s for sure. My family, friends and the wonderful groups I have joined and the group I run, has saved me.

To some that may sound a bit melodramatic but its true. When I first acquired Anosmia, I was numb, I truly thought my life was over and I’d never be happy again. I wanted to give up and for a long time didn’t even make the effort to try and do anything about it. My family rallied round, my friends, they were all amazing but I couldn’t pull myself out of this complete depression and the loss I was feeling.

I discovered Fifth Sense, a charity for Anosmia, through the internet and made a half hearted effort to get involved but even that didn’t really help. They were brilliant but I was in such a bad place I needed something more personal to get me going again.

So one day I was listlessly looking at Facebook and just out of interest decided to search for Anosmia groups, and to my amazement found three! I went onto
each group had a read through the descriptions and decided to join them
all….well what had I got to lose? My sanity had already done a runner ages ago. Once my join request was accepted, I introduced myself expecting nothing in return, then logged out because I couldn’t be bothered by then. At that time I had the attention span of a knat!

I went to bed exhausted as usual, as I wasn’t eating at the time because it either tasted like sh…t, oops sorry, or nothing. Such is the life of an Anosmic.

But in the morning I went and checked my emails and found lots of Facebook messages from the various groups saying things like “we understand what you are going through” and “we are here to support you, don’t feel alone” and lovely considerate, thoughtful comments like that. Some told me their stories and
others gave feed back about my own.

All of a sudden I didn’t feel so lost there were people out there like me, who were going through the  same thing and managing, getting on with their lives even! So that was it for me I was on these groups every day gaining strength and a spirit of community from them.


So much so that eventually I felt I wanted to give something back. That was when the idea of forming my own group began to develop.

‘Living Well With Anosmia’ was born at that point and so many amazing people have joined. My goodness, it puts what I’ve been through into perspective. Some of these brave people had been through awful things like car crashes where they sustained terrible injuries, not only to their heads but their bodies too. Others had been Anosmic for years and were still so strong. Some didn’t have a any support at all.

But there was one thing that stood out from all of them, they wanted to fight, to make their lives better, to find joy in life again. This was great for them but great for me too. It made me more determined than ever to start living again instead of existing and also to help other people do the same.

So fast forward to now, the group is growing and my objective is working. We have a laugh in here together, against all the odds. We suggest food to try, coping mechanisms. And most importantly of all we help each other and I feel I am helping people too. Yes there are bad days for all of us but we can come onto the group and let off steam, get understanding and buoyed up again.

I love all of the groups I’m in and have a so much to thank them for. But this group, my group are wonderful individuals, strong individuals and I cant ever imagine being without them now.

So if you feel ready to take that next step and reclaim your life please join us at livingwellwithanosmia be part of a new journey.