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 ?

Sorry O P, hate this bloody tablet auto c orrect. Do you dream?

I discovered that I have aphantasia about a year ago.
No images at all, extremely poor memory and no dreams. It blows my mind that people actually see images in their heads!

I don't see a picture image when I imagine things. I do when I dream, but not when awake.

On a loosely-related note, but I've always wondered, for the daydreamers... Do you dream from your own point of view, or see yourself from the 3rd person pov?

I thought everyone could do this, I thought it normal. Something else I can add to my list now.

Own POV

I think some people are getting confused. It’s not that you close your eyes and literally see images in front of you as if they were on a cinema screen - the ‘images’ are in your mind, not floating in front of your eyes. That’s why it’s called the mind’s eye.

Depends on what I'm daydreaming about.

I think I have the opposite - my mental images and dreams can seem so real that they can be very hard to distinguish from reality. Often that is lovely, but it was absolutely horrific when I was is the throes of very nasty PND after DD1, badly sleep deprived and much more ill than I realised, and almost completely unable to distinguish reality from nightmares. I guess there can be both upsides and downsides to each

Me too. My day is dependent on what sort of dream I had the night before as they can be so detailed and vivid I wake up exhausted. Same with the PND,grim.

I have no idea.

Like others when I shut my eyes it's just black. But I can imagine sheep in a field jumping over the gate. So in my mind I can visualise a field, hills in the background, little sheep with black faces.......but I don't actually see anything. It's not like I'm watching the tv with my eyes shut? Is this not normal?

I have a friend who in her dreams there's never any conversation/dialogue. She thought that was normal and was surprised when I said in my dreams people have conversations, etc. Not sure which is normal.

The opposite also has a name, in case you're interested. It's called hyperphantasia.

I don’t actually feel like I’m seeing images with my eyes, but with my eyes closed I have detailed recall of places and objects. I also “smell”, “feel” and “hear” memories. Conjuring something up from imagination is less vivid, however.

I can draw and recall maps easily, navigate around places I’ve only just visited or have not visited for years, and can rearrange objects in my mind to see whether they will fit (no, delivery guys, that bed frame will not go up those stairs whichever way you turn it... See? I did say...). When revising I used to write all my notes on cards in coloured pens (preferably in flow charts) and take mental photos so I could “read” them in the exam.

However, I can’t learn from verbal instructions. I can’t turn your directions into a map in my head, but if you give me a sketch I’ll be able to “see” it while driving.

And I can’t remember the faces of people I’ve just met. If you’ve changed your jumper or pinned your hair up since we were introduced half an hour ago I’ll probably not recognise you as the same person. If we’ve met a while ago, I may recognise your face but I probably won’t know who you are until I read your name badge or ask someone.

I’ve finally learned to tell people up front that I’m terrible with faces which makes socialising much less terrifying. Also, DH is great with faces and terrible with names so together we get by!

I can picture things in my head and also maladaptively daydream. I have a totally different life I live in my head and escape there quite regularly. However, this is all imaginative stuff - I'm quite bad at remembering what actual real places look like, I'm terrible with directions / routes and I struggle to remember faces too.

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. ??????????

I see black but imagine the sheep in mind's eye.

I have a friend who in her dreams there's never any conversation/dialogue I don't think there is in mine either although I do sleep talk.

😳 this has blown my mind!! I only 'see' black (with a reddish tinge like a PP described). I never even knew that I 'should' actually see an image...thought it was just a turn of phrase! I do dream vividly though, and my imagination is also very vivid, so when I close my eyes to imagine, I 'see' without images, if that makes sense. It's kind of like I 'feel' the image rather than 'see' it.

I'm really, really shocked that I'm so abnormal 😂🤦‍♀️😱

Ok so google says if you have apahntasia you wouldn't be able to count sheep as you can't visualise enough to be able to count them. So I don't have it.

Many years ago, someone asked me what happened in my head if they said "pink elephant". I saw a cartoon pink elephant. I also saw the words 'pink elephant' in pink capitals. All against a dark background.

What I will never know is whether your blue is the same as my blue.

FFS. No one can literally see images floating in front of their eyes when they close them! That’s not what the mind’s eye is!

FFS. No one can literally see images floating in front of their eyes when they close them! That’s not what the mind’s eye is!

I feel your frustration!

People don't see things when they close their eyes they see the inside of their eyelids not a full on cinema screen

It’s not that you close your eyes and literally see images in front of you as if they were on a cinema screen

When I close my eyes I see patterns, it’s a kind of hallucination Oliver Sacks has written about, they are separate and distinct from when I visualise in my minds eye

I do dream vividly though, and my imagination is also very vivid, so when I close my eyes to imagine, I 'see' without images, if that makes sense. It's kind of like I 'feel' the image rather than 'see' it

I'm really, really shocked that I'm so abnormal

You're not,that's perfectly normal.

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.

This is me too. I'm slightly better than this in that I can 'zone in' on individual images but I can't do the whole picture, or imagine how something would look with altered features. It's a pain when navigating places because my picture memory just slides all over the shop and I forget how many turnings I've passed.

It's not aphantasia though, just a normal variant of cognitive function. How do those with this condition cope with driving? Can they do it at all or do they use different strategies?

I was confused in the past whenever this was discussed in here. Reading this thread I’m even more confused!

I think a lot of it is peoples definitions of ‘see’ ‘imagine’ ‘visualise’ & ‘recall’

I think it’s very much like we will never know what someone else sees colour wise

I definitely can’t picture what a room looks like decorated (bloody wish I could!)

I have a very poor memory of places, events and it makes me very upset because I can’t remember a lot of my life experiences & people.

(I take shit loads of photos these days)

The things I do remember I can ‘see’ but only like a photo (actually mostly I can only recall a photo)

I can remember how places & people made me FEEL though and I can remember a few comments people have made very ckearky (some good some bad)

If I close my eyes and try I can conjure up the image of a beach part fantasy/part recollection of a beach I’ve been to

I am mostly crap at facial recognition but then sometimes see someone I know I’ve met in the past and it bothers me until I eitkmiutbsho they are/where I met them I get ‘right face’ ‘wrong place’ confusion a lot (teachers, shop staff, doctors dentists etc

I’d love to be able to experience things the way others do - just so I could experience the difference

The Elephant...pink cartoon one sitting down looking at me as if to day ‘what Am I doing here?’

Sheep - cartoon or real, but I have to ‘make’ them it’s not like a movie. Counting them doesn’t help me sleep, my mind quickly drifts off to more interesting things and I’m still wide awake!

I think I have it. I can’t conjure up an image of a pink elephant or a beach or sheep. I can’t picture the faces of my children (but I do recognise them when I see them so the information is somewhere in my brain). There is a very vague and fleeting image at the edge of my minds eye but that’s all.

I love to read but don’t imagine anything visual, I enjoy it because I feel empathy for the characters in a story or am interested to find out what will happen next. In books with long descriptions of places or people I skip those sections because it doesn’t add anything for me. It’s just meaningless words.

In dreams I can see things. In sexual fantasies I imagine how something feels. I’m not creative at all, and really struggle to do imaginative play with the DC. I suffer from depression and have wondered if the world would be a more joyful place if I had a more vibrant minds eye.