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 ?

Huh. I have this too and always thought the same that people just know what a beach looks like when “picturing” a beach, So almost a description rolls around your head like ok there’s sand, the blue sea, waves moving in and out etc. No idea people actually “saw” something. Must find out what dp has now!

As I said apparently only 2 - 3 % of people have it.

Literally like seeing except with eyes closed

I'm confused. So do you actually 'see' the image, literally see it? Because I can visualise things quite easily with my eyes shut but I don't actually physically see them. I still see the darkness but the image is imagining it's there, iyswim🤷‍♀️

Dmso the vast majority of people CAN see stuff and a tiny minority CAN'T
that seems unlikely to me

Oliversmumsarmy I'm really bad at seeing the potential in a house or room. I'm also rubbish at clothes shopping as I can't look at things on a rack and imagine what they'd look like on me.

If some one said picture a beach I would see a beach, and the tide rolling in and out, the waves, someone windsurfing out in the distance, children playing, building sandcastles, people sunbathing, the umbrellas and sun loungers.
I can even hear the tide and giggles of children

I am as amazed as others that some people cannot see this

I can picture that, thinking about eg a postcard or picture I've seen but I can't 'see' it. I do wonder if it's just about use of language?

Good grief. This is news that people can't picture things in their mind. I picture a finished decorated room all the colours, where everything is placed, the way the sun will hit particular parts of the room. Can't imagine not being able to do that!

I see a movie of wherever it is. It’s on a tV screen in my chest. This was long before the Tellytubbies!

If you can picture things in your mind you don’t have aphantasia @StealthPolarBear - I think the word ‘see’ is confusing people. People with aphantasia can’t imagine things visually

Really interesting. I think my husband might have this. When I give him directions to a place for eg I go into my head and describe what I can see on the route to him, he , having done the route as often as me will just try and remember as a list of words and hope to apply them as he sees them. Also when trying to explain how something will look when we change the wall colour or add a piece of furniture he just says he can't visualise it.

In contrast if I need to describe stuff in my immediate surroundings I'll access my head image rather than look around.

With me it's like eye floaters.

If I visualise a tree I can "see" a vague idea of a tree at the edge of my mind, but if I try and "look" directly at it it just slides away. The images won't stay still.

Mind blown. Did not know people could not picture things in their head

yeah i have this to some extent. At best sometimes i can sort of visualise a photograph ive seen many times, but fleetingly and without detail. I have terrible visual memory though, face blindness and aphatasia. The only time ive ever got good visuals in my mind is on acid.
I dont think i could even describe my mum or my kids very well

Oh I'm terrible with directions too! It's a family joke. I could get lost anywhere.

Yes i have it i found out on mna couple of years back.

I also had no idea that when people shut your eyes imagine this that they could actually see them! I'd sit there with my eyes shut seeing black thinking of a beach and feeling a bit bored. And wondering why it was a thing. Know i know!

People can be really funny about it couple years back there was a thread on here about it lots of people who didn't have it describing it as a disability and that people with it were probably autistic !!!

Thing is we cannot know other people's experiences so it's hard to explain. Like i can feel music in my body can everyone feel that, i don't know. My sexual fantasies are fine. Like others i have adescription wordy ishness thing going on when i think of people, but i can also feel like being touched. You can enjoy sex in the dark, surely ?!

Thing for me was it explained why my memory is so poor and that in turn explained why although I'm quite clever i can't get to grips with some stuff, this has had a big impact on my life add I've always chosen things that meant more understanding and as little remembering as possible ie maths. I used to be able to do quite advanced maths but i can't remember my tables. My dad said, can't you just see them in your head and see the answer you need? WHAT???? No wonder some people find it easy!

They should bring this into learning styles in schools. 2 or 3 or of 100 is a lot.

My son has it and hates reading because of it,

My son is exactly the same.

I'm the complete opposite in that I can conjure up any image in my head and I can decide whether or not to make it cartoony or realistic. BUT I do have face-blindness. Go figure 🤷🏼‍♀️.

I have aphantasia, found out a few months ago, and face blindness. I've known about them for ages but only learned the term recently.

I realised I was different years ago when I was told to picture my baby in my head while expressing because it helps to stimulate the flow of milk. And I was confused like 'what do you mean picture her? She's not here! If she were here with me I wouldn't have to express!' Until then I had thought all the stuff about mental images was just a way of talking about the imagination, I didn't realise most people had actual visual recall.

I thought imagining things was just that, imagination. I see pictures, words and numbers, colours. If I'm tired then I tend to find it harder.

Can you practise? (Genuine question.) I know that if something bores me then i don't really bother to picture it.

I loved reading

I can imagine but it's just not pictures. Hard to describe.

Probably actually we're all different but it's hard to tell with no other experiences to compare to! I mean people who can see pictures, will all be different too. Like how detailed etc.

Thing i wonder is, i was ok at working in multiple dimensions (theoretical obv :D) and live scifi, i wonder if not being able to see pictures makes you less married to the here and now, the real? Just an idea.

Not being able to picture some complex phenomena doesn't phase me as i wouldn't be able to picture it under any circs!

Interesting.

We were strongly of the opinion that children should read a book before seeing the film, so that they can form their own picture of the story & characters in their own minds first. Otherwise you rob them of that first "wow" experience of reading the book. Then we had DS and realised that he simply doesn't visualise any of it in his mind at all. So we've "broken" the rule for him and swung round to encouraging him to watch the film first, to help him follow the book. It's not robbing him of anything.

We assumed this was because of his autism. IRL he definitely does the autistic thing of seeing details in things bit not the overall whole.

I have this and am also truly terrible at recognising people. I remember things by recalling sensations (I might also recall, say, a sofa by noises which I interpret to describe the dimensions but not the colour). And I can vividly recall the emotions I felt when I saw something or someone, even though I can't picture it/them in my mind.
Unless I know then very well I can only recognise people by remembering something distinctive about them. If Suzie wears something that covers her long earlobes, or John wears different glasses then I won't recognise either of them. I don't really recognise the features, I just remember that if I'm talking to a woman with long earlobes, then it must be Suzy, and John has glasses with little sparkly bits on them.
As for sexual fantasies, I can recall sensations and that's more than enough! I don't have any problems with learning, because once I have written something down I can remember it- I just can't see it!

Hang on. People actually see things move and actually things???? When u close my eyes I can only see black. When I try and picture a sheep it’s still black. ??????????

OK I've read a bit about it and it's a spectrum. I think I'm towards the aphantasia end but not excessive.
If I imagine a tree I imagine a green blob on a brown trunk, like a child would draw it. Or I imagine myself under a tree that was familiar as a child. I couldn't conjure up an unknown oak tree or whatever in detail although I can picture and oak leaf I think.

Can you not imagine a sheep? Or remember how one you seen moved and looked?