To be freaked out, Can't imagine images...

[Slappadabass]

So I came across a post on here about aphantasia, not been able to imagine or picture a image in your mind, I can't, but I'd never thought about it and thought it was the norm until now.
I've been trying to picture my DC (amongst other things) in my head, I know what they look like, could give you every little tiny detail about them, but can't imagine their faces, I can't imagine anything.
I don't know how I've not realised people can do it but I can't until now.
AIBU unreasonable to be freaked out? apparently there's a fair few people on here with aphantasia, anyone?

Eh?

I have this to an extend. I can imagine vaguely. If I try to imagine DD it’s like having words on the tip of my tongue - it’s there but I can’t quite bring it forward completely.

It’s like my mind means glasses. BUT I’m pretty ok with landscapes / events etc. It’s people I struggle with.

Mind NEEDS glasses ^^

Interesting. If you were asked to visualise opening your front door and walking through your kitchen/living room could you ‘see’ it in your minds eye?

Me!!! Absolutely no minds eye.

Pros to this - I never have flash backs and if Tinder dates are using horrifically old photos I don't tend to notice!

Negatives - I am sure it doesn't help my sense of direction which is dire!!!

@inthekitchensink

Nope, I can't visualise anything. I could tell you what it looked like to every last detail but I can't imagine a picture in it in my mind.

I'm really freaked out by it lol, probably been a bit dramatic but it's weirded me out!

I have no mind's eye either but I'm also face blind. I have always assumed the two were linked.
I love reading but I don't get any voices or pictures in my head. The words just make sense. I'm jealous of people who have their own movies theatre in their heads.

@Colinthedaxi

Did you always know, or was it a revelation to you? I kinda feel like a idiot for not realising and just thinking it was normal

It's interesting.

Apparently our visual memory is actually pretty shit. I read that when people go blind their visual memory goes after a few years. Seems hard to grasp but I watched a video where a girl went blind at about 14 and she had no idea what she actually looked like, what colours were etc and she was only about 21 so not that long really.

Sorry for being nosey, it’s very common so don’t be freaked out! I’m just interested, my minds eye is unreliable and hazy but I can picture putting a key in my front door, ‘feel’ how I need to jiggle it and where I put my keys down. Even if it’s just flashes. Is that the same?

I can't see faces in my mind's eye either OP, neither can my Mum. It is kind of weird though!

My sister has this. It really freaks her out, too.

My memory in general is crap. Short and long and long term.
My OH often tells me of memories of his childhood in great detail but I only have a handful of childhood memories and definitely not vivid ones. And I'm very very forgetful, always forgetting something, double booking myself, go to the shop with a list in my mind and forget it all.
Don't know if it does hand in hand but I'm starting to think my mind doesn't work properly

I didn't realise there was a name for this. I think I have this to some degree. I always used to laugh how I'm so useless at drawing because the second I try to draw a horse, for example, I forget what one looks like. I have a really good memory otherwise and I'm good at remembering smells and sensations etc. I find this kind of stuff fascinating!

I've just had to let go of the notion I was in a way 'normal'.

I'm lay with ds7 who can. smarty pants

I've known for a few years, I read this and went "ah, this is me!"

www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/

Op from what you've said I think you're me

Also have next to no childhood memories!

When I answer the phone to patients I know by name I can see them when I'm talking to them. I sometimes know who they are by their voice without me asking their name. I can also greet by name approximately 95% of patients who walk through the surgery door. However I can't remember what's written on a shopping list and remember to look at it before I finish shopping but I can see in my mind's eye where everything in Lidl is placed.

@inthekitchensink

I get nothing, not even a flash of a image. I think there is different degrees of it.

This is the 'test' for it I've gone across on Google, I'm no.1

I'm glad it's not just me that's weird

How worried should I be if this is a new thing?

I have this too. I realised when I was about 10 or so and found out that “counting sheep” to get to sleep wasn’t just a phrase that I didn’t understand, people (my parents) actually mean picture sheep jumping over a fence until you go to sleep. My mind was blown when I found out people can actually do this. In my mind I feel like I can picture things I have seen before (I cannot create an original image at all) in the corner/outskirts of my mind’s eyes but if I try and “look” directly at it then it disappears.

This is so interesting. I can't imagine not being able to see images in your mind. Even when I do things like mental arithmetic I visualize it in my mind. I wouldn't know how to do it without using mental images.

FiveHours I am pretty face blind - as in I don't recognise people if I haven't seen them for a while, or if they change their hair or something.
But I can visualise by DDs faces and places etc.