I've just discovered I have Aphantasia - who knew !

[VictoriaBun]

You might have it also.

Close your eyes and imagine a happy place, a wood , a beach anywhere that floats your boat . See the image in your mind, feel yourself there etc etc.
Now can you actually see the image in your head ? No. Well then you also have it ! !
It's blown my mind that I've got to this age and realise that when people say something like count sheep to help you sleep that can actually see the sheep in their head. Wow. Apparently 2 -3 % of the population also have Aphantasia. Who's in the club ?

But I thought that was a photographic memory? I can see FA when I close my eyes - hey ho.

When I close my eyes the blackness interferes with my minds eye as I'm conscious of the blackness. I do have a mind's eye though.

Toitoitoi photographic (or eidetic) memory is being able to visualise something you have seen in great detail.

Minds eye is being able to make images where you have not seen it before.

I have extremely vivid dreams though and struggle sometimes with the transition back to reality.

have music playing in my head all the time and music feels like a physical sensation when I hear it which may be a payoff for not having the pictures smile

FFS this is so true! What is going on today how come this information has slipped my mind!

I keep thinking back to a meditation tape I listened to in my 20s...people actually saw that beach in their mind's eye didn't they!!

If I think of DH, he’s there sitting on the sofa in our living room. If I think of counting sheep I see cartoon sheep jumping over a fence. I can picture everything and anything, I just thought that everyone could!

I need to lie down. How did I not know that the majority of people could do this!

Who doesn't have music?

That is something different, pictures and music.

I don't get pictures at all, but music is playing all the time. My head is full of music and words. And when i imagine stuff i can feel it. Also often hearing music is a physical sensation which is lovely, really immersive.

I have music in my head, but only from my inner voice singing. It's nice, because in my head I'm a bloody amazing singer!

@Skade wow! Thanks so much for replying, it's just fascinating.
I guess it's as alien to you, to comprehend the idea of speaking in your head, as not being able to is to me.
How did you manage at school? Like maths for example, are you able to solve things in your head? I always talk it through in my head as I'm working it out, does it all have to be done on paper, or am I misunderstanding the inner voice entirely?!

@ShutTheFridgeUp actually it might explain why I’m so hopeless at maths! I can only do it on paper or using my fingers so there has to be a visual element to it, is impossible for me to do it in my head. I can recite times tables but I think that’s because it was drummed into me as a child and was learned by rote, rather than me doing the calculation in my head if that makes sense?

There is a Facebook page for aphants for anyone wanting to learn more or interact with others who experience the world in a similar way

www.facebook.com/groups/204603509580186/

I get like surround sound with full ircestea and bass bins 😁

I find it intetesting that people are assuming that no pictures means no nothing, when you close your eyes it's black plus no sound no smell no touch no nothing.

And start saying oh yes these people are probably autistic and /or have no imagination.

Not that there's anything wrong with those things, it's interesting how the dominant group leaps to these things though.

It's more than possible we have extra that the people who can see in their heads don't have. If course as we rarely talk about these things and it's all very difficult to describe we might never know!

@Skade sorry for all the questions, but does that mean your mind is effectively silent, unless you are actually hearing something and your brain is processing it?

I'm thinking about this subject now so I am hearing my inner voice, but yes normally I don't hear my inner voice. I live in the moment and are only aware of things happening externally.
I never hear music in my brain. I can visualise things and have quite a good minds eye if I try, but better with my eyes open than shut. I don't fantasise during sex. I feel sensations in the moment. If I try to fantasise or meditate my mind wanders.

I think I have this too.
I’m always amazed how people manage to describe the culprit of a crime in enough detail to create an e-fit, I could never do that, I cannot remember faces of people I have just seen.

I also get lost really easily because I can’t remember what the places I have passed look like.
I’m quite artistic but I don’t draw/paint from memory I use a reference and kind of piece everything together.
However I am really good at memorising things and find exams really easy so I guess my brain just works differently.

And I cannot remember music at all. There are songs I listen to every day but if you asked me to sing them or hum the tune I wouldn’t be able to.

And when I dream I know I do visualise things like I’m actually there experiencing them, but when I try to recall my dreams I can’t remember the scene in my mind I just remember in general what happened and how I felt.

@ShutTheFridgeUp yes that's pretty much it! My mind is almost always empty of sound or images unless I'm actively trying to work something out - I'm not able to carry out any kind of dialogue with myself at all. My DH told me that he sometimes comes home in a bad mood because he's been arguing with himself over something - that blew my mind!

Skade - how do you weigh up decisions? How do you contemplate the pros and cons and Decide which is best? What if you are indecisive?

I can’t imagine not having an ear worm. Currently I’ve got Jax Jones All Day and Night buzzing round my head.

@katewhinesalot I have to talk to friends/colleagues about it, which is why I feel like I'm a chronic oversharer - sometimes it's about stuff that I'd rather keep to myself, but I am unable to contemplate the pros and cons in my own head and find myself asking a multitude of people for their opinions in an attempt to try and come to a decision!

@katewhinesalot and sometimes I will sit and actually write a list of pros and cons - when I can see it visually the decision is easier...

It's been so long since I had a dream I could recall I couldn't remember if I see images then.
Had one last night and it was definitely as if I was living it and seeing it. It was a weird visual dream where someone said I looked inappropriate and I didn't know what they meant until I looked down at my front and saw someone had written words and drawn hearts all over my skin and it had transferred to the inside of my white shirt. The shirt looked like my son's after his last day at school when everyone wrote on it in with sharpies.

God knows what the dream meant, but it was definitely a visual dream at the time, although recollecting it I just get the usual split second glimpse like someone projecting images fleetingly onto a screen

Oh wow, I thought no one actually saw pictures in their heads. I don't, it's just black but just asked hubby and he can see very vivid pictures and describe people perfectly.

Wow this is interesting. I guess we assume everyone’s the same as us.