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Original poster

Aphantasia

283 replies

Newrumpus · 31/03/2023 22:28

Recently, I discovered that I am aphantasic. I had never heard of this until recently and after hearing about it I have become interested in the experiences of others.

To save anyone googling, aphantasia is mind blindness or lack of visual imagery. When someone says ‘Imagine an elephant’ I think of an elephant but I don’t see one in my mind.

Does anyone else have experience of this and how did you discover it?

OP posts:
Original poster
Newrumpus · 31/03/2023 22:47

WashAsDelicates · 31/03/2023 22:44

Do you dream?

I have vivid visual dreams, a strong imagination and a very good memory.

OP posts:
NotDavidTennant · 31/03/2023 22:48

Everyone dreams. Not everyone remembers them when they wake though.

Bucketheadbucketbum · 31/03/2023 22:49

Interesting! Especially pleased to learn this as I only clicked on the thread as I thought it was another crazy mumsnet name one...

"Sense of elephant " would be just the 2023 baby name ticket!😂

HRTeatime · 31/03/2023 22:49

Well, you know what an elephant looks like, because you’ve seen a picture or film of one before. You can describe something from your memory. But there’s nothing I “see” in my mind when I am asked to visualise one (or anything else for that matter).

I have a terrible memory for events/dates too. I wonder if that’s linked. Maybe im just really shite at some stuff. Great with totally fucking useless facts though.

I do dream though, really vividly. Sleep walk fairly often too.

amusedbush · 31/03/2023 22:51

FatGirlSwim · 31/03/2023 22:36

I have this too, apparently it’s more common in autistic people. I also have prosopagnosia (face blindness), not sure if that’s linked

I'm also autistic, aphantasic and prosopagnosic.

Face-blindness is absolutely linked to autism - a disproportionate number of us have it compared to NTs.

WunWun · 31/03/2023 22:51

I see pictures, but they are fleeting and mostly gray-scale.

I have been having therapy and one particular therapist would often try to get me to visualise things in a sequence, which I found really hard.

Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 31/03/2023 22:56

I have this too. Only realised it was a thing a few years back and I'm in my 40s

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 31/03/2023 22:57

Hate 'relaxation' recordings where you have to see a beach or forrest glade. So stressful trying to pretend that you can see something. I would be useless as a witness. I do dream vividly though.

WunWun · 31/03/2023 22:58

On here you occasionally get threads about this, or the ones where people say "When you think of the months of the year, what does it look it?"... They don't look like anything to me at all. If I force myself to think about it they look like a Microsoft outlook calendar.

bluebiro · 31/03/2023 22:59

I am curious to know if this affects mental arithmetic ability? I think I often work out sums using pictures in my mind - eg pictures of blocks adding up - I think I would struggle without images.

HighInfidelity · 31/03/2023 23:01

bluebiro · 31/03/2023 22:59

I am curious to know if this affects mental arithmetic ability? I think I often work out sums using pictures in my mind - eg pictures of blocks adding up - I think I would struggle without images.

I can’t imagine doing maths like this! I tend to need my fingers to help me out or pen and paper if it’s more complicated. Actually, it would ideally be a calculator if it was more complicated.

tolerable · 31/03/2023 23:05

i dont "think in pictures"ever. (i "know"what an elephant is.)if i'm reading a book-i dont create mind imagery either

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 31/03/2023 23:07

bluebiro · 31/03/2023 22:59

I am curious to know if this affects mental arithmetic ability? I think I often work out sums using pictures in my mind - eg pictures of blocks adding up - I think I would struggle without images.

The example they gave on Rutherford and Fry was to ask which has a longer tail, a rabbit or a squirrel. Now I just know the answer to that. I think it must be really draining to have to visualise a rabbit and a squirrel to make that comparison. Likewise with visualising blocks, that feels to me like it would be hard work, but I just know it. I can't verbalise how I know it, it is just information there waiting to recalled.

Travelfan2021 · 31/03/2023 23:07

This reply has been withdrawn

This post has been withdrawn at the poster's request due to privacy concerns.

Saracen · 31/03/2023 23:07

I used to be entirely unable to see anything in my "mind's eye" ever. Then in my 30s I acquired a "mind's eye". I don't think it's as good as most people's, but sometimes I see things in my mind. Sometimes the pictures are even fairly vivid. It's pleasant to be able to conjure up pictures at will.

It amazed me that artists could create good pictures if they weren't drawing from life or a reference photo. How did they know what went where??

I'm still pretty rubbish at recognising people, which I thought was the result of not trying hard enough. Since watching a documentary about face blindness, I don't feel ashamed of it anymore. I don't have face blindness, but I think there must be a spectrum of face-recognising ability and I am toward the lower end.

Daisymay2 · 31/03/2023 23:09

I have no visual memory. I only discovered it when a colleague was talking about a friend of hers who also has it, in the sense that " X says that she doesn't see anything in her mind when someone says close your eyes and imagine a beach whereas I see blue skies, blue sea, people swimming, isn't that strange?" She was gob smacked when I said that I didn't see anything either.

Like PPs I don't get visualisation exercises, always assumed they were a bit of a joke.

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 31/03/2023 23:10

It is much easier though when someone tries to tell you not to picture a pink elephant. Can't even picture a grey one so yep, quite easy to move on and think about something else!

Longdarkcloud · 31/03/2023 23:10

I, too found out only recently that there is a name for this and it is a “thing” not experienced by everybody.
I used to get very frustrated when I attended relaxation groups etc and one was told to visualise oneself on a beach etc and I just couldn’t do it.
In my dreams I never actually see people, I just know they are there and who they are.
I was amazed to learn that some people can “see” vivid pictures in their mind’s eye and that they can move (the pictures, I mean).
I have two conditions that I think are connected to this — I have synaesthesia and see letters, words and numbers in colour and I have moderate face blindness (prosopagnosia).
I can recognise people I know well and see regularly but not anyone else . I find this very embarrassing when greeted on the street by what seems to me like a random stranger. Sometimes I think a person seems somewhat familiar and 90% of the time I’m completely wrong.
Watching films is challenging as unless it’s a regular series I can’t ID the actors and if there’s more than one young blonde, balding male etc I have to ask my viewing companion who they are.
So I guess all these conditions which are connected with visual ability arise from the way our brains are connected.
I think we all start off believing we are “normal “ and like everyone else until something happens to disabuse us.

Original poster
Newrumpus · 31/03/2023 23:11

Someone described it like this: the computer is working but the monitor is off. You know there is a file in there and you know what is on the file but you can’t see it.

This is an accurate analogy for me.

OP posts:
saraclara · 31/03/2023 23:11

My daughter has it. She was about 30 before she realised that other people could actually see things in their heads.

I found it really hard to understand when she was at my house she said that she couldn't picture her own living room. She could describe it to someone, but not see it in her mind's eye.

Weirdly she's artistic and draws beautifully. She can't see my face in her mind's eye, but she'd be able to draw a perfect likeness of me. Now that boggles my mind.

Clymene · 31/03/2023 23:12

I didn't realise that other people could actually see pictures in their head until I read about this recently. I've over 50!

Gingernaut · 31/03/2023 23:12

I can't see anything in my 'mind's eye', could pass friends, family and colleagues in the street without recognising them and have dyslexia and ADHD

I have a radio going on in my head, can have full blown conversations, arguments and discussions and I often rehearse things I want to say until I get the 'tone' right.

Relaxation and hypnosis recordings are a pain in the arse, as many of the voices irritate me - certain Australian and American voices, especially female, with the 'vocal fry', wind me right up.

I've got to find a 'soothing' voice I can listen to.

Neil Nunes is fabulous and recordings of him reading the Shipping Forecast are used in Radio 4's Sleeping Forecast recordings on BBC Sounds

My mental arithmetic is awful

Queenofscones · 31/03/2023 23:13

So when people say they see pictures of an elephant, what do they see? A real elephant in amazing detail? A cartoon elephant? Still or moving? A clip from an Attenborough-type film?

Ask me if I can see an elephant in my mind's eye and the first image that jumps up is Dumbo, then a very stylised embroidered elephant from an Indian cushion I owned for some years. I have to work harder to 'see' a real elephant, and even then it's a bit sketchy because I've never really studied images of elephants in great detail. And now I'm thinking about it I'm getting ghosts of dozens of images of elephants I've seen over the years. But a lot of them are very sketchy indeed. Is this familiar to others or do you have on clear elephant images that always crops up?

Original poster
Newrumpus · 31/03/2023 23:13

Saracen · 31/03/2023 23:07

I used to be entirely unable to see anything in my "mind's eye" ever. Then in my 30s I acquired a "mind's eye". I don't think it's as good as most people's, but sometimes I see things in my mind. Sometimes the pictures are even fairly vivid. It's pleasant to be able to conjure up pictures at will.

It amazed me that artists could create good pictures if they weren't drawing from life or a reference photo. How did they know what went where??

I'm still pretty rubbish at recognising people, which I thought was the result of not trying hard enough. Since watching a documentary about face blindness, I don't feel ashamed of it anymore. I don't have face blindness, but I think there must be a spectrum of face-recognising ability and I am toward the lower end.

Did something happen in your 30s to trigger this? Did you try to acquire this ability?

OP posts:
FatGirlSwim · 31/03/2023 23:14

bluebiro · 31/03/2023 22:59

I am curious to know if this affects mental arithmetic ability? I think I often work out sums using pictures in my mind - eg pictures of blocks adding up - I think I would struggle without images.

I am hopeless at mental arithmetic. I don’t know whether it’s linked.