Aphantasia

[Newrumpus]

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?

I get very vague, fleeting visual impressions in my mind but they vanish like mist if I pay them any attention. I can't picture people's faces at will, even my own family. If I do get a visual image of someone, it's always of a photo of them that I've looked at a lot, never a spontaneous or general image of them. I find myself taking a lot of photos and looking back over them frequently. I don't think I have true aphantasia but I'm definitely not far off. I don't picture what's happening if I read a book, either.

I am also hopeless at recognising faces and keeping track of people in films etc. Poor DH despairs of me - I'll turn to him an hour into a film and go 'I think I've seen him in something before...' and it'll be someone like George Clooney. There are very few famous people I can reliably recognise.

This is me! I found out when a friend was telling me she found out her husband was aphantasic, I was like wait what other people DO see images 🤣 but then people tell me I must be able to 'see' images because of my memory.

What an interesting thread. I've heard of this before but thought it was extremely rare, not something that many posters could relate to.

When you think of an elephant, what are you thinking of? If you think of your own house (while on holiday, say) are you thinking no. + street name, or £price paid, or 'three-bed semi'? Or would a picture come to mind then, with something you know better?

If no picture comes to mind, how can you think of your house as yours, assuming that (like my house) it's not an unusual or detached building, but one in a street of many. Only the small pictureable things (the chipped knocker, the heather growing in a pot outside, the curtains, the scooter in the porch) allow me to distinguish 'my house' from 'other houses on my road'.

@Judd

On the sheep thing, I don't think many people (maybe sheep farmers do?) have an incredibly rich photographic picture of different sheep jumping over a richly detailed fence.

It's closer to stock imagery when picturing something you've never seen (like sheep in a line queuing to leap a fence, though if I try hard I can start to fill in more details from past fields, past sheep). But with something you see every day, it's easier for many of us to conjure up an exact image.

spiderlight I am exactly the same, I can only visualise photos, usually one I have seen many times, and even then I can only hold onto the image for a nano second.

The point is that you're not actually seeing it, it's in your mind. You don't need to shut your eyes for it.

Newrumpus I dream like that too, sometimes I have the 'starring role' sometimes it's more like a movie and I am watching it play out, I am the main character but the main character isn't the real me, it might be a man or a child, or an alien, its hard to explain. My dreams are usually very vivid and I also have a great imagination, I just imagine things in words rather than pictures.

I'm still not sure. I don't think I 'see' things in my head. I know what a beach would look like, but I don't see it. I always though that when they said someone saw something in their head in a book it was metaphorical. I'm still not sure it isn't. I mean they don't see it surely, just imagine it? I can imagine a beach. I can draw a beach. But I don't see it.

I can't picture people's faces at will, even my own family. If I do get a visual image of someone, it's always of a photo of them that I've looked at a lot, never a spontaneous or general image of them. I find myself taking alotof photos and looking back over them frequently.

My daughter does this, though she finds short videos even more helpful. She takes very short ones (maybe just ten seconds or so) on most occasions when we get together as a family. They're not to show anyone else, they're for her to recall us and happy times, because she has no other effective way of doing so. It's actually nice for the rest of us that she does this. She's recording our lives, basically. What an archive for my granddaughters/her nieces and her sister.

What's in your head then? What are you seeing all day long? I can't see images very clearly, but they're there in a murky sort of form.

Well, it’s like a book. I know my house has a red door (with a chip the bloody sofa took out of it). The internal doors are wonky as it’s so old. The kitchen has cream cupboards, the cooker is pale yellow, my dog is too. There. No picture to see, but I’ve given you a description. You might now see it in your mind as a picture, for me, it’s just a verbal description of what I see when I’m in it.

I only see what I’m actually seeing with my eyes, nothing inside my head. Do you have constant images in your head all day long? What are they of?

I literally found out about this the other day, I have a blind mind’s eye too. Didn’t realise that other people could create these images so vividly. However I’m pretty awesome with maths and have a close to photographic memory so I wondered if these are connected?

Are people frequently thinking in pictures? Like when you have a thought do you automatically see it? E.g you think - oh I fancy a coffee, do you see a picture of a coffee as automatic/standard?

Because I don't think in pictures. All my thinking is just a voice in my head. I don't see words and I don't see pictures, I sort of 'hear my thoughts' inside my head.

However, if someone said sit down and picture an elephant, I could just about do it. It's not easy, it flitters in and out, it's quite hazy but I could do it.

With my DC I could do it too. But I'd have to think hard and I'd have to try hard. I don't naturally think in pictures.

Also OP, can you dream?

Despite my previous post, when I remember them I have very vivid dreams. Full on movie going on.

this is interesting ,
could you draw a pic of an elephant? And if so are you drawing from a verbal description memory?

My thoughts are images. So, if I'm thinking of my garden, that's what I see in my head. It's not as clear as a photo image, but it's there, just not as clear. If someone mentions a person or Ithink of somebody, I see them as a whole, in a particular scenario, moving and talking.

Eg, my niece is coming to stay with me for the weekend and I'm imagining her journey from her home to mine and I see it like a film. Whatever I'm thinking of is generally part of a moving image. I have them in my head every second of the day.

When my DF realised she had it, she did a lot of googling on the subject. And I think almost 1:10 people have it. We were both amazed that it was so common. And this thread bears that out..

My DD, rather

Oh wow. My thoughts are literally just words and concepts so if my niece was coming to stay then I would have an internal monologue going on about that but no images at all. Do constant images not mess with what you’re actually seeing in any way? I can’t imagine it.

I can't see in pictures.

The mental arithmetic question is interesting to me as it is something I cannot do without using my fingers or jotting lines (or gates for 5s) down.

I can add up dominoes quickly because I use their spots. But I really struggle with playing cards.

WRT the elephant I sort of see it in words e.g. big, grey, trunk, tusks etc..

I am abominable at drawing and I think maybe for me this is linked to not being able to get any kind of picture in my head of what I'm trying to draw.

Ummm, how do you remember events that happened to you then? When you remember a holiday or a party or anywhere you have been don't you "see" it in your mind's eye / like looking at a photograph or a video? How do you remember someone's voice or laugh? I honestly find it hard to imagine all this blankness!!

How interesting, I never knew this was a thing. I've always had a very vivid "mind's eye" so to speak. Ever since I was little and first watched Fantasia I've loved listening to music and making up my own visual stories around it in my head. I can't imagine there just being... Nothing. It's so interesting how humans can be so very different.

With inner monologues, apparently I'm weird in that my monologue isn't my own voice - my husband thinks I'm an alien because of it. So who thinks with their own voice and who else thinks with a whole cast of different characters?

I find that really strange! If I think about it, it's like my mind projects it over whatever I can currently see. In the same way I can imagine the size, physical movement and noise it would make. Like a visual and audio echo. Other people cant do that?!

Remembering a sound like a voice or a laugh is different. If doesn't require images.

I have a pretty poor memory of events TBH which is a shame. The memories that I do have are created using an internal monologue. So for me it's kind of like telling myself using words what happened at the event and what it was like, rather than picturing anything. When I see photos I am reminded of things that haven't made it into my memory bank.