Aphantasia

[EstoyRobandoSuCasa]

I’ve recently realised that I have this to a large degree. If I shut my eyes and try to picture an apple (or anything else), I tend to see something vague and blurry which disappears or fades if I try to focus on it. Sometimes a more vivid image flashes into my mind, but it’s as though I see it out of the corner of my eye and then it’s gone again!

I’m wondering how common this is. How clearly can you see things in your mind’s eye?

Completely the opposite,I can see things in the most minute detail.

I don't see in pictures. If I really try I can get a vague idea of an image. It makes me sad that I can't picture images of lost loved ones easily. Most of my thoughts are a stream of words.

I have this! I realised as a kid when I found out that “counting sheep” is not just a euphemism for “lie there with your eyes closed until you fall asleep”…

I can picture things I am very familiar with in the “corner” of my mind’s eye but if I try and “look” straight at them, they go away.

There's on-going research into where most people lie on the hyperphantasic/aphantasic spectrum - it's probably a bell-curve.

https://aphantasia.com/

Yes, that's exactly it! I can get a vague corner-of-the-eye picture but cannot focus on it.

Same here. I was shocked to find that other people don’t see things like I do.

My DH has this big time. He can’t picture any of us or things we’ve done together. It makes him very productive as he’s always focused on moving forward and not looking back. Also means he won’t miss me as much if I die first. Like, he still loves me and would miss me but wouldn’t be replaying moments of us together in his head. It gets him down a bit sometimes, the idea nothing he does really sticks in his head and it blows his mind how much I can place where I saw a movie, the exact details. But generally I think it makes him a happier person.

Yes same with me, I can see everything and also videos in my mjnd. I had no idea some people can’t.

I have this. I have absolutely no minds eye. Just blackness

I can conjure mental images of things / people / places I have seen - IRL or in art /film / TV, but I can’t ‘imagine’ in pictures. So I can't bring someone to mind but imagine them with a moustache, and I can't picture what a room would look like if you decorated it differently or knocked a wall through.

I can't get on with the type of guided meditations where you're walking into a moonlit meadow or imagining a beautiful place in nature where you feel perfectly safe or whatever.

I don’t get much enjoyment out of science fiction / fantasy books as I can't see what the spacecraft / alien looks like, or I am plagued by pedantic questions like, does a female werewolf have hairy boobs? Are her boobs on her chest or on her abdomen like a dog?

With realist fiction I make.all the characters look like people I know.

I mean if I close my eyes and think of an apple I don’t “see” an apple, because it’s dark? But I know exactly what it looks like and I can picture it, I just can’t actually see the image? That’s normal?

I could never do a police sketch if ever needed! I can't recall faces of my own family and was amazed at how people got such good likenesses of strangers.

Police sketches absolutely amaze me. How does anyone do that?! I couldn't generate a sketch of my best friends/colleagues.

The worst part of this for me has been when loved ones die. I can’t quite remember their face - I can picture bits, but it’s disjointed, flashes in and out. After a while I can’t picture them at all, and photographs of them become flat and lifeless.

I can’t see anything at all. I didn’t realise others could until my 30s 😆

I have complete aphantasia. I’ve never seen an image or visual memory of any kind in my minds eye or in my dreams. I have no clue what my family look like unless I have a photo of them or they’re standing in front of me.

@pinkdelight i don't think they're the same thing. I have an excellent memory, I just can't see it in my mind. I can replay memories in my mind, and conversations and recall feelings and what I thought at the time and probably describe what I saw/noticed- I just can't replay it.

There was a very interesting discussion about this on Radio 4 the other day, largely related to the way people read novels - whether they ‘see’ the scenes in their minds or not and if so how they use a combination of the printed word and their own imagination to create the images .

There’s apparently also research being done about whether people ‘hear’ the voices of characters in their heads when reading dialogue and what accents and tones they designate to them.

I’m whatever the complete opposite of aphantastic is! I ‘see’ things clearly and with great detail. I also have very definite ‘voices’ for the characters and sort of ‘hear’ them
speaking as I read. I wonder if the two are related…?

Your husband experiences are similar to my own. I feel sad sometimes because I have forgotten, or should I say, I have no internal library of some events that have happened in my past because those events are no longer stored in my brain.

I worry that when I am old, I will have large gaps in my memory as times goes on because key events are not backed up in my memory - for example, I cannot remember giving birth to my children - my memories of those events probably last a few seconds and that’s it. I have already forgotten many cities that I have visited or holidays too.

I do print out photos from my phone so that I have physical photo albums to keep photos because I worry that, if I were to lose my phone, that I couldn’t remember my loved ones faces if they are no longer around.

I am not great with recognising faces, for instance, if I were to meet a work colleague unexpectedly outside of the office environment it would take me longer to recognise them because I do not have a visual of their face stored in my brain and I would not expect to see them elsewhere.

Apparently having aphantasia means that those who have it, tend not to dwell on bad or shocking events because the event is not imprinted in their brain and they can recover from those events more quickly so less likely to suffer from things like PTSD.

I have this as do two of my four (adult) children. They are both autistic (one 'high functioning' one with learning disabilities) and I have no doubt that I am am too, but have no need for a diagnosis.

I have no ability to picture anything. At all. I couldn't picture an apple, or my kids' faces. It blew my mind when my younger DD2 told me that when she chooses her outfits she pictures herself in them, and my oldest DS says he can not only picure things but can make a whole movie scenario...sounds, visuals, even smells!

I used to do pilates and always wondered why at the end of the session the trainer would ask us to relax, picture ourselves on a beach or similar as I didn't realise that lots of people can actually do that.

It's actually a little bit of a pain in daily life... DIY... I can't imagine what dh is trying to explain to me, when he's doing stuff. I also can't imagine characters in books and descriptive passages are wasted on me! I think in words.

DH and I have spoken about this a lot. He and I think my son have aphantasia. I have always thought I'm the opposite. I have a great memory, can create scenes from books and have vivid dreams (which they can't) but when people say close your eyes and picture and apple. Well it's just dark isn't it?! I know what an apple looks like, I remember and apple in minute detail. Is that the same? To be honest I can picture it, just not when I have my eyes closed 🙈

I assume it's not just images ? I can picture a glass of coca cola, but I can also imagine touching the glass and it feels cold in my hand and wet from the condensation. I can imagine the exact flavour and the fizziness in my mouth. I can hear the bubbles popping and I can see the colour very vividly.
Do other people have all the senses?

I struggle with picturing faces though. They seem to come and go and are in no way as vivid as the above.

Curious how other senses are imagined - I had a near perfect auditory memory until my early twenties, which made me an A student as long as I had a good teacher. I can also imagine tastes very well. If I read a menu I can taste the combination of flavours described. I assumed everyone did this but dh can’t.

I'm not sure it directly links to memory. I have a pretty good memory. It's stored as descriptive text rather than images.

I'm confused then because I can listen to a podcast drama or read a book and 100% will create and see the images in my mind and get incredibly immersed in the visual from what I'm reading or listening to and I can also recall events and places and revisit (see) them in my mind but....

I cannot for the life of me bring to my mind the image of a face that's familiar to me, or any face for that matter, but the more familiar the face, the less I can see it?!

What the heck does that make me? 😅