Can you picture things in your minds eye?

[StillMedusa]

I can't. Never have been able to . I thought it was just a figure of speech but turns out it really is a thing.. people can visualise something not in front of them!
Aphantasia is the name for not being able to (ie me). Not that it's caused me any problems except for not being able to imagine my dh's latest DIY project but I can't even picture my own kids..I can describe them but I can't 'see' them in my head.
I'm also not very emotional and can move past difficult things/events/sadness in a way that has always slightly worried me (not that I don't care, I do, but it doesn't haunt me) and I wondered if that was conencted, because I can't mentally revisit things.

Just wondered how common it is really?!

I can picture almost anything in my life. I have been steadily writing about my life, for a number of years now, like documenting everything that I can remember from my early days, up until now, I am in my late seventies now. It not because I have had some kind of fabulous life, its because of my version of trying to keep my mind active, and not go loopy !

So most of the things I write about from way back, I can clearly visualise at all times. which is helped by writing down things I think.

This is fascinating. I am the opposite of you & this has blown my mind. I have a very vivid imagination & I visualise everything almost automatically; have worked a creative career. I’m curious as to what you do ‘see’ in your mind?? It sounds like nothing which I can’t fathom- sorry if that sounds mean I am just trying to be pragmatic- are you very ‘matter of fact’? I am often accused of being too emotional or living in my head so I imagine you are the opposite? I also would imagine you can be a very even keel person whereas I am very up and down and honestly I think this is due to how I ‘see’ things and often projections of mind! Only learnt this as I’ve got older really. Can I ask if you do any creative activities and if you enjoy them? For example if you have a decision to make, let’s say moving to new city- what do you see when you imagine the move? I would see style of house, architecture, types of activities I would be able to do, visualise the environment scenery etc. Would I like it or not, good for us or not. If you can’t ‘see’ it what is your thought process? Sorry if I’ve not understood but find this fascinating! Xo

@StillMedusa are you autistic? I am and I have aphantasia as well.

I'm so, so jealous of the person who says that they can imagine themselves inside the book they are reading. That must be amazing!

@Itsnotover can I ask when you read what is the experience like for you? Can you see the characters/voices/setting? Xo

@sjxoxo
When I imagine anything, I can only get like a hazy depiction. So no details as such and usually places that are in the book will be based upon things that I’ve already seen. Nevertheless I do enjoy reading certain types of fiction but the character development needs to be good because I can’t fill in the gaps.

It’s actually quite a disabling part of my autism because I can’t imagine a task done before it’s done so I need a lot of help and guidance to, say, organise a room. It also means that I have virtually zero ability to predict outcomes of situations or to understand what someone’s motives might be.

No, I can't. I wish I could.

@BadlyFormedQuestion

I’m good at knowing what will fit in spaces, how to decorate nicely etc too. But without ever picturing anything in my mind.

Like others have said, I always thought it was just a thing people said about picturing things in their mind. But it seems that I’m odd for not doing it. I’ve spent the end of a yoga class not actually picturing a river or a balloon or whatever the teacher is asking the class to picture. I think more about the sense of motion and the bits that make up the river and things. But no matter how hard I try I cannot produce a picture in my mind.

This me to a T. I am also a playwright and oddly enough at a writer's workshop met two other prolific writers who have no minds eye. I was a bit insulted by the PP who assumed that someone with anaphasia would be crap at writing.

sjxoxo I don't see anything... it's hard to explain. I think (obviously, I'm not a rock ) but there is nothing visual in my head , eyes open or closed it's just thought.. language, if you will.

I am very emotionally even keeled, yes. Very little makes me emotional and I struggle to understand people who get very upset or even very happy over things, especially things that aren't overwhelming. I don't worry over things once they are in the past either.. I think because I can't 'go over it' visually my brain compartmentalises it.. box lid shut and move on.
I'm not uncaring by any means, I love my family very much , but I'm not very needy emotionally either..quite self sufficient .

Itsnotover I think I probably am. Never pursued any sort of diagnosis as I function quite happily, but two of my four children (now adults) are on the spectrum.. one is high functioning, the other is less so (special schooled, will not live independently) and my own grandfather was almost certainly autistic . Like you, I enjoy reading and am a huge reader; I love fantasy (Robin Hobb type stuff) but I don't SEE the characters, I just enjoy the narrative. I couldn't write anything creative to save my life, but am oddly good at copying ..I can draw well from photos which is a useful skill as I work in school !

I have aphantasia and like you I didn’t know it was a thing until I read about it in bbc website a few years ago.
I have a very strong memory which I guess I developed to compensate

I can remember and imagine visual images, sounds, flavours and smells extremely well. Including things from years ago. I never knew there were people who couldn’t.

@Soyouthought How horrible of your DH to not believe you, just because he can’t!

I've kissed many a handsome man

Yeah … I’ve done more than that!

@Hesma

I have aphantasia and like you I didn’t know it was a thing until I read about it in bbc website a few years ago. I have a very strong memory which I guess I developed to compensate

Me too.

I can visualise places and people - someone unthread mentioned their grandmother who died 30 years ago. I visit my grandma’s house and garden in my mind to relax. I can smell the coats in her cloakroom, feel the tassels on the edge of the upholstery, see the curtains and the leaded windows….

Days have colours, Numbers have a kind of feel (their shape, not the abstract concept). I can “hear” music and can “play” a song - instruments and voice - in my head. I can remember directions and draw a map from memory. I can do verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests. I can cram for exams. I dream vividly.

But I cannot do faces. Or at least I can’t put faces with people. I’ll usually know if I have seen someone before, but I am very poor at remembering who they are, and frequently mix up people who look superficially similar to me.

I mean I think they are superficially similar. Not that they look like me!

I have a good visual memory and can definitely picture things easily in my head. As a child I had a vivid imagination and would create whole stories in my mind. I still have very lucid dreams like I'm actually there. I can picture myself walking through my childhood home like it was just yesterday with everything still in the same place. But it also has its downsides, such as I have obtrusive images when thinking sometimes e.g. picturing my husband cheating on me or if I got hit by a car. Or reliving unhappy memories over and over in my head. It makes me very emotional.
I am also terrible with remembering names, can't identify songs, and can't detect accents or sounds well. I think everyones brains are different and I find this so interesting.

I struggle to conjure up people's faces, unless im picturing a specific photograph of them. I used to really struggle to picture dd when she was newborn, not that i often needed to as she was always with me.

I have complete aphantasia too (found out about it on here), I also don’t dwell on things at all and I’m not overly emotional.
I’m fairly good at navigating around - I seem to know instinctively where things would be in a town or place.
I’m pretty good at creative writing although utterly dreadful at art, I can never quite remember where bits of animals are meant to go!
One thing I’m really bloody good at is spotting things abs I think my uncluttered mind helps, I was as good as the spotter on safari and the party of my job which relies on identifying abnormalities too.
There’s a couple of Facebook pages and a lot of people get quite worked up about the things that they have missing, it’s pretty positive for me.

I see things in my imagination and my memory is almost wholly visual. I revise by writing things down and then recall seeing the words appearing on the page. If I have had a conversation with someone I can replay it in my head and often -wind up- amaze DH by being able to recall what people said and wore years ago. I "attach" facts to pictures of people - very useful for a history degree although I found remembering dates harder as numbers aren't that visual.

This is fascinating. I didn't realise that all this (the entire spectrum, I mean) was a thing.

I guess I have a strong visual memory. I moved around quite a bit as a child, and very so often I take myself off around the houses where I've lived, and my grandparents' houses top (all long gone now).

I can 'feel' the door handles in my hand, remember the squeak of stairs, or how the banister felt in my hand. I can still pull back the funny concertina door in my grandpa's kitchen and hear the bottom catch on the lino, and the smell of tomatoes in the summerhouse.

So, not just visual but all the senses really. It's really very strong for me and I'm pulled back to Christmas 1977, the start of the school year when I was 11, or a summer holiday in the 1980s in an instant!