What could cause smelling burnt rubber during a seizure aura?

[SofiaL]

I’ve been having these strange episodes where I’ll suddenly smell something very strong, like burnt rubber, but no one else can smell it and nothing is there. It only lasts for a minute and leaves me feeling a bit spaced out. My doctor mentioned it could be related to a focal aware seizure, which has me pretty worried about what’s happening in my brain.

[Abigail42]

That sounds really unsettling. I’ve had moments where a strong smell would flare up for a minute and leave me spacey, and it shook me even though I knew it wasn’t real. I started keeping a simple log: what I smelled, roughly when it happened, what I was doing, who I was with, and how I felt after. It helped me talk more clearly with my doctor.

[JerryGR]

From what you’re describing, a neurologist might want to check it with an EEG and maybe an MRI to rule things out. I saw a few people who had similar sensory events and they asked me to track duration, triggers, and any accompanying changes in vision or memory; the data helped. The label I heard was focal aware seizure, which honestly made me feel uneasy but gave the doctor something concrete to chase.