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?

No it s not in front of my eyes it's in my mind

You sound like you have a perfectly usual & normal photographic 'snapshot' memory like me

It’s definitely a thing. I know you don’t mean that you see images with your eyes. I don’t see mental images. I can’t visualise images, only ideas and words.

I can describe people or things, I know what characteristics they have. But I don’t see a picture of them in my mind.

I couldn’t describe their face, because I have prosopagnosia too, and I don’t recognise my own family if they change their hair. But I think that without this I’d be able to describe a face in the same way.

Omg @SchoolTripDrama so is there any upside? How are you academically for instance? Can you just learn verb tables and pull them down alla Sherlock when you're speaking a foreign language? Or do you have to 'rummage' in your brain like the rest of us?

@SchoolTripDrama I'm afraid you're wrong there.

The visualisation of the information is one way. 'Photographic' is a colloquial word for what is actually named an Eidetic Memory.

Yes, some people with this can physically 'see' the information, others such as @FlyingHighFlyingLow and myself just 'know' the information.

No, I definitely have a vivid imagination. I just don’t have a visual imagination. I imagine things in words and feelings, not pictures.

I have this. I didn’t realise that other people can see their loved ones in ‘ their mind’s eye. I can’t visually imagine my children or my husband. I know what colour and length their hair is, because I know, but I can’t visualise them if they aren’t with me. I was really shocked when I found that other people could.

Huh, I have aphantasia. Learned it was a thing about 5 years ago but never thought to link it to why I'm so crap at mental arithmetic despite being really good at maths!

I have this!
I only realised when I actively lied during therapy 🙈 (said I could visualise a giraffe, realised no I cant)
This is so surreal this thread because I only told DP about this 5 days ago! He knew the word, I didn't know it was a thing!
However I dream lots and suffer intense sleep paralysis.

I'm probably nd, but I mask. I've spent years just copying people who I like and reading ways to be helpful etc, I have 2 autistic children and I suspect that I'm adhd. Spent most of school barely being able to hold a pencil or count, or in high school getting lost because I wasn't in classes with my friends, I'd literally hide under stairwells because I was so worried about getting bollocked for being in the wrong classroom.

Poor little pleb I was 😂

I've far more in common with ND posters and MN has made me realise I'm definitely quirky at the least, these threads I really find helpful x

The only other issue I've managed to use aphantasia as an excuse for is DPs haircuts.

She used to give me loads of crap for not noticing but now I can blame it on the fact that I can't remember what it looked like before, it gets me off the hook.

I imagine it like the same way I saw an elephant on a nature programme. Like I literally can see an elephant walking across the plains exactly as I saw it on TV. Its like I think back to when I saw it on TV and its like I'm replaying what I saw in my head.

I have this to some extent.
If asked to imagine an elephant I'll get a flash of an image that's there and gone, but it's a memory of something visual like a photo or tv program.
When I try to remember things that I've seen in the past it's another fleeting glimpse of something based on a memory of a photo. I get the experience of it, but not a lasting image.
Just tried to picture ds2 and the 'image' was of my most recent photo of him not when I saw him last week.

Just asked ds1 and he says all his visual imaginings are based on creating/drawing the image as if on his computer after which he can turn them around and 'look' at them (he did his degree in computer art)

I have daydreams that I've been running for decades (same characters growing up) but the visuals are more feeling/experience/imaging than anything relating pictures. I know who they all are, but have forgotten the names I've given them and I'd be hard put to describe them visually.

My brain instantly gives me the smell if I think about the smell.
If I think 'cut grass' for example, I'll see a field and 'smell' grass.
Smells also bring huge memory triggers for me.

What about when reading a book? I'm guessing you just hear the words in your head?
When I first read Harry Potter I loved being able to walk around Hogwarts in my mind. That's why sometimes the film is disappointing if you've read the book first. It can look so different to what you had imagined.
If I watch the film first, I generally see the images from it when reading the book.

Last time I had an MRI, I was able to take a 'walk' round Hogwarts to distract myself.

I have this too, Interestingly I'm looking at getting a diagnosis for ADHD and I have two children with it and one that is Autistic.

I have an internal monologue.

I find it really sad that I can't picture my children well I can I can almost feel them hugging me, it's like they are there in my brain I can feel them but the light isn't on so I can't see them.

What's weird is I'm good at directions and things like flat packs. I can work things out in 3D but I'm not actually seeing them at all which is strange.

I'm also good at putting colours together I know what works and don't need to take clothes out with me if I wanted to colour match with something say but I don't actually see the colour in my head so really don't know how that works!

I'd love to learn to see so I could see my children but for many years didn't realise I was different to others.

I prefer to watch the movie before I read a book, it brings to life all the scenes and faces that I can't picture. I hate descriptions in books, there is no point describing something in great detail, I can't 'see' it so I just skip it. I do have an imagination, I can conjure up exciting plots and scenarios, I just can't picture them.

And my internal monologue never shuts up!

Rutherford and Fry mention a test. The subjects are asked how many windows their house has. Those that visualise see their home in their mind’s eye and walk around it counting the windows. Those that do not visualise just “know ” by working it out from memory. Both groups are able to come to the correct answer

My internal monologue is like a good friend — can’t imagine not having the dialogue. Can be used to calm one’s anxieties, to help follow instructions etc

Con is that I need white noise etc to help me get to sleep because the internal monologue thrives when there is nothing else going on!

I have this. I can’t visualise or see anything in my minds eye. I am an artist and can paint or draw what something looks like because I can remember but can’t ‘see’ it. My DH and DD can both visualise and actually see the image in front of them not in their head.I said to visualise a giraffe and they said they can see it in the room in front of them, wierd

No, I could not 'see' my brother. How I would describe him? Very badly! I would be aware of certain features because they had been discussed within the family and I would remember the associated facts. For example, if the uncles were in the habit of remarking how similar my brother and I looked except my eyes were blue and his were brown, I would retain the fact of him having brown eyes. Maybe I would remember the summer he outgrew all his trousers and was smug about reaching the height of six feet, so I would know he's tall. If he used to get teased about his bushy eyebrows then I remember the fact he has bushy eyebrows. It's a collection of unrelated facts, not an image.

In the absence of that history, it's harder. I try to stare at acquaintances and memorise some key facts about their appearance, but it doesn't work very well unless they have some feature I think is distinctive, like a cleft chin or a mole or very pointy ears. My DH will ask me about someone I've just met and I say, "Er, I don't know. Average-looking? Grey hair. Blue jacket."

They literally hallucinate an elephant? They actually see one, with their eyes, in the room?

I've never heard of that.

I think they are having you on.

I'm mind blind too. When i close my eyes, it's dark