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Original poster

Do loads of people have synthasesia?

74 replies

StealthPolarBear · 14/12/2018 11:06

Is it more common than I imagined? I first came across it on here and am fascinated, I have no idea what everyone means :) I had assumed it was rare but there are loads of you!

OP posts:

Julianaa · 14/12/2018 23:10

I see colours when I hear music. I play the violin and my teacher realised I had synaesthesia when I was about 10 years d and mentioned a colour when we were practising a piece in a particular key.

Also I see dates in physical locations a bit like a previous poster described, as if they were all written on a flipchart page in a certain pattern. If someone tells me their birthday or a date of an occasion I plot or mentally on that page according to the month and day.

BerylStreep · 14/12/2018 23:21

I have it for days of the week and months. I also see dates in a linear fashion - like points of perspective with past dates going away on the right hand side.

BTW - Mondays are red, and Tuesdays are grass green. Fridays are a blacky purple

DontCallMeCharlotte · 14/12/2018 23:27

DemToes

I have exactly the same as you. Saves me typing it all out!

MillionScarletRoses · 14/12/2018 23:46

I see musical keys in different colours and also notes have their own colours. From talking to other fellow musicians this is very common. Sometimes the colours match, sometimes they don’t.

For example, C-Major is bright sunlight with blue skies and a bit of brown earth. While g sharp minor is bottle green with a few undertones of blue and lighter green. D flat major is pearly pink. E - Major is rich blue with tones of red and green.

I guess this is why I like scales, they don’t look or sound the same to me. It’s like playing out different colours.

Same as if I know if a piece of music is in b flat minor, it will be grieving a death or overpowering sadness which crushes you. While a-minor is a lighter melancholy, as it is light blue base.

FlorencesHunger · 14/12/2018 23:47

Me and my dd have it for taste, we can look at a food at a distance or even think about certain foods and we are able to taste them quite strongly.

I realised she had the same when she was young and got upset as she didn't like the taste of the kiwi that was on the otherside of the room and said she couldn't look at it while covering her eyes. don't think she'd ever had a kiwi by that point.

Think it's pretty common for citrus food tbf.
Who can't smell the weather?

I find it interesting but I wouldn't get tested for it, some peoples senses are better or worse than others.

Haworthia · 14/12/2018 23:52

I don’t think it’s actually that common, I think these threads, by their very nature, attract people who have it (or think they have it) whereas non-afflicted people - like me - scratch their heads and wonder how numbers have colours and days of the week have flavours

I think all of us might have funny/weird associations to certain things, but synesthesia it does not make.

nolongersurprised · 15/12/2018 00:23

One of my daughters has it for numbers, but she’s always had a “thing” for numbers and is very good at maths now (extended to several years ahead). As a 2 year old she could count to 100 but also (weirdly) assigned numbers to the people she knew. It’s all a bit strange but I figure that degree of affinity with numbers must come with a few quirks.

igot99problems · 15/12/2018 00:32

I have it but only when I orgasm. My other half always asks me what colour my orgasm was after we have sex...usually purple or yellow. Also, they are never solid colours, the colours move if that makes sense?

I did google it a while ago and found out that orgasm synesthesia is a real thing..🙈

ScreamingValenta · 15/12/2018 00:33

This Wikepedia article might interest you, OP:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect

JellySlice · 15/12/2018 01:19

Does it change for any of you? Mine has weakened with age and I really miss it.

Unicornandbows · 15/12/2018 01:39

I had no idea people saw things in colour.. I find this amazing and feel like im missing out lol

calpop · 15/12/2018 01:57

Mine has also weakened with age. Nownonky proper nouns have colour and new people arent as vivid. I miss it too.

justilou1 · 15/12/2018 02:23

I have it and it's quite complex and annoying when I'm stressed out and emotional. I find it hard to get to the "truth" of what I'm reacting to. It's overwhelming sometimes. Too many colours and sounds and tastes. Much too much noise. It's inconsistent as well. It's not necessarily numerical for me, thank goodness. Musical, yes. Much more right-brained, so that explains it, probably. I find neutral-coloured schemes much more relaxing. I need boring environments to chill in. I can't watch much tv. Going into a Lush store is my own private Hell.

Andromeida59 · 15/12/2018 05:36

I used to see dates as a timeline in different colours but since my car accident and brain injury, I don't. Hopefully it will come back as it's very confusing without.
My brain is just weird. I can smell things that aren't there (but are on tv), certain musical notes make me cry and if I feel things that are really soft, it leaves me in pain.

TheRealJoseph · 15/12/2018 15:06

I read books as if I'm watching a movie. Rather than just reading the words on the page, I picture every single scene in full color moving along just like a film. Don't know if that's synesthesia or if everyone can do that?

I do that aswell, (I've always put it down to a really well written book.)

DontCallMeCharlotte · 16/12/2018 10:32

I did google it a while ago and found out that orgasm synesthesia is a real thing.

So glad you said that! Blue and/or purple here.

igot99problems · 16/12/2018 11:46

@DontCallMeCharlotte yay!!! I'm not alone! I have had purple with a little red in the Centre, but never blue...

Babdoc · 16/12/2018 11:52

It’s more common in autistic people. DD1 has it.
It’s known that autistics have 10 to 20% excess grey matter in our brains, and much greater connectivity between unrelated brain areas, so it’s likely that stimulation of one area, eg with words, will also fire neurons in another, eg colours.
Children who are born with it tend to assume everyone has it, and can be surprised to find they’re in a minority!

pointythings · 16/12/2018 11:56

If you look it up on the NHS website, they say about 4% of the population have synaesthesia to some degree. It's associated with improved academic performance, possibly because heightened perception helps with things like pattern recognition. The University of Sussex does a lot of research on it and has online research projects you can participate in if you are over 16. (18 for some studies).

My DD2 has it and I have it mildly.

OneWildNightWithJBJ · 16/12/2018 12:01

I didn't realise it was an actual thing until I saw a documentary about it once. I have it (confirmed by a really long online test!) for numbers, letters, days and months, which are all specific colours. I also see numbers and dates in a certain position and varying sizes hanging in the air in front of me. Sounds really weird, but I used to think that's how everyone saw things.

Annandale · 16/12/2018 12:10

I recently found out ds has it, and he's almost 15 - it never came up before and of course he had no idea anyone sees it differently. Would be very interesting to know how common the various forms are.

Crinkle77 · 16/12/2018 12:14

I see names as being related to food so things like jenny is rice pudding, Michael is stewed steak, Angela is orange jelly, Jane is jam tarts, karen is carrots. I didn't realise synesthesia was a thing until I read about it on here.

JellySlice · 16/12/2018 14:05

I didn't realise it was a thing until I saw a documentary about it either! I was in my 20s IIRC. In primary school I kept being told off for using the wrong adjectives, and it was assumed that this was happening because English was my second language. So in secondary, fed up with having had my pronunciation constantly corrected, and my un-English English constantly noticed - despite my vocabulary and grammar being better than most of my peers' - I made sure never to describe a number by its colour, or a word by its flavour, and so on. Except in English lessons, where my compositions always scored highly for their descriptions

Biber · 16/12/2018 16:31

I have sometimes seen music in shapes and colours when listening intently and studying. Once I woke to seeing the beeps from my alarm clock, black flashing dots. The orgasm vision thing is real for me too. Sometimes. Not just colours but whole visions. Water, or dragons or gothic spires are ones I remember particularly well. I shall google too. Thanks igot99problems for bringing that up.

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