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Original poster

About synaesthesia - I'm being snarky just ignore me

46 replies

toomuchtooold · 07/02/2019 22:14

I saw someone talking about their synaesthesia on Twitter last week, and and an uncharitable thought occurred to me. I have synaesthesia - I feel that certain numbers and days of the week have colours and, with numbers, personalities. I know, that's weird enough. But what is really weird is that my synaesthesia seems to be second rate and vague compared to people on the internet. I have a few feelings about some numbers and not others, and they're pretty vague feelings. People on the internet with synaesthesia seem to have so much more detail. I'm like 'yeah 2's banana yellow and is a bit loud" and they're like "not any banana, a banana that's been gently warmed on the kitchen window of your favourite auntie. And he has a name, George, and he has two miniature Schnauzers and likes flower arranging and people always mistake him for being gay but he's actually asexual" and stuff like that, and I just wondered if there's anyone else on here with half arsed synaesthesia or has everyone else got like a full mental CV and head shot of all the numbers up to 250?

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 07/02/2019 22:19

Dunno. I've always thought days had colours, which I also think is completely normal and mainstream. Just bog-standard visual thinking.

RevolvingBananaHaiku · 07/02/2019 22:21

Yeah. Letters have textures but it doesn't go further.

Coldhandscoldheart · 07/02/2019 22:21

Yes. Really vague. Not a taste, but like a mouth feel? Or an image. I suppose our wires are only partly crossed.

MattBerrysHair · 07/02/2019 22:23

Mine is just like yours. The sense of colours of the days if the week and months of the year are really defined and strong, but there are no personalities back stories or anything.

lottiegarbanzo · 07/02/2019 22:23

So my question is, how were you diagnosed with synasthesia? How difficult is it to gain a diagnosis? What criteria have to be met?

HenweeArcher · 07/02/2019 22:23

I had no idea this was abnormal or had a name 😳

CouldBeAnyoneReally · 07/02/2019 22:25

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - you’re all mad Confused

Original poster
toomuchtooold · 07/02/2019 22:25

It's not an illness is it, it's just a thing. I'm too old to have been diagnosed with anything so interesting anyway, back in my day you could have dyslexia or possibly autism, outside of that you were just a bit weird...

OP posts:
Original poster
toomuchtooold · 07/02/2019 22:27

I have sometimes wondered if it was just the colours on a poster in a long gone primary 1 classroom but then DD2 started talking about this the other day and she also does this and some of ours were quite similar. I was glad to hear that she has no time for the number 4 either, that uptight goody two shoes Grin

OP posts:
AtrociousCircumstance · 07/02/2019 22:29

People love to show off Grin

I’m a bit synaesthetic and irrationally a little bit proud of it. Therefore I seldom mention it, because it’s hard to do so and not come across as “look at meeeee, and my fascinating brain!”

Passmethecrisps · 07/02/2019 22:29

I have half-arsed synethsesia. When I was a child I had strong personalities for the numbers 5,6 and 7 and the letters a,b,c and d.

While it has faded it is still there vaguely.

I thought it was normal. Someone told me it was synesthesia but a bit shit.

I heard someone on the radio giving the most absurd descriptions of things I could Mit help but say out loud “what a load of shit”

MattBerrysHair · 07/02/2019 22:30

I also have a type of synaesthesia in which I feel shooting pains from my shoulders down my arms if I see a wound on another person. It can be a fresh wound or an old scab, but it has to be fairly hefty or serious for it to have an effect.

Passmethecrisps · 07/02/2019 22:31

5 was a nice, friendly number who wanted to be friends with everyone really. 7 was very keen on 5 and would like to be friends but 6 was a jealous bastard and wouldn’t allow it.

RockyFlintstone · 07/02/2019 22:34

Ah yes, competitive synesthesia is definitely a thing! Everyone wants to be speshul these days after all.

I have it 'mildly', I think it's quite common isn't it? Although having said that, whenever I have told people in real life that the days of the weeks/months of the year have colours they do think it's a bit weird.

RockyFlintstone · 07/02/2019 22:35

It was Off MN that I found out it was called 'synesthesia' though.

HalfBloodPrincess · 07/02/2019 22:37

I thought I had synasthesia - all days of the week had a colour.

Figured out that when I was about 4/5 I had a pack of ‘days of the week’ knickers and the colours matched up to the elastic on those so it’s a clear association.

lottiegarbanzo · 07/02/2019 22:38

I know it's not an illness but it is a condition and will have criteria.

I think what most people are describing here is just variations on normal modes of thinking. It's not 'having synasthesia'.

Sorry. It just sounds a bit like when people say 'he's so OCD' for someone who quite likes things to be tidy.

Redcrayonisthebest · 07/02/2019 22:38

I've only just heard of this as being a "thing" (you don't need to be diagnosed do you?) but yes numbers have colours and words have a shape and feel to them and musical notes are all shades of the same colour according to the key. I've always kind of assumed this was fairly normal though, don't most people?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/02/2019 22:39

Wednesday tastes like cigars. (God that so weird)

Passmethecrisps · 07/02/2019 22:39

I actually agree with you lottie. I had always considered my letter and number personalities just part of a child’s way of attributing sense to something. I suppose it may or may not be something else.

RockyFlintstone · 07/02/2019 22:40

I think what most people are describing here is just variations on normal modes of thinking. It's not 'having synasthesia'.

Interesting. What are the criteria for it?

LilQuim · 07/02/2019 22:41

A woman who was discussing her synesthesia on twitter. My name is a single Sugar Puff.

Make if that what you will.

MattBerrysHair · 07/02/2019 22:42

There is a test you can do called a consistency test. Over time people are asked for the colours of different things (numbers, letters, days of the week etc) and if it is consistent then it is likely that that person is a synaesthete. Non-synaesthetes generally pick colours at random.

GroggyLegs · 07/02/2019 22:42

Ooh me too MattBerrysHair

Doesn't everyone? Are we special?! Smile

AhCheeses · 07/02/2019 22:59

Colours, days of the week and months of the year are odd or even for me. They just have a feel to them. I group them along with odd or even numbers.
Even days are Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Even months are April, May, August, September and November.
Colours are trickier because it depends on the shade.
I don't talk about it in real life, it's just the way it is.