AIBU to think aphantasia is not rare?

[Sunninginthecorner]

I was doomscrolling insta and a video came up about aphantasia.

Rather than explain what it is badly I found this:

Aphantasia is a condition in which people do not visualize, or see, images in their minds. This rare way of processing information and recalling memories affects about four percent of people. Close your eyes and imagine a fluffy cat. What color is the cat? What is the cat doing? When asked such questions, many people will conjure up a lifelike visual image. But others do not. People with aphantasia know they are thinking of a cat. They can even describe what a cat generally looks like. But they do so without “seeing” a cat in their mind. Instead of using their ‘mind’s eye,’ someone with aphantasia may think using words, numbers or ideas.

Brain scans show that people with aphantasia respond differently to sounds than people who use mental images.

I can’t see images and my very small poll IRL hasn’t found anyone who does see images.

IABU - you can see in images and it is rare
IANBU - you can’t see images and can’t believe it’s that rare

I cant imagine seeing what I have for dinner.

I find this subject fascinating.

I have hyperphantasia but it's very useful (I'm an author). So I 'see' the action as I am writing; I see my characters, the location and if I could draw (which I absolutely can't) I could sketch the environment all my books take place in. But I know several authors who have aphantasia and still produce terrific books. I have no idea how they do it or their working processes, but then they can't see how I do what I do.

Humans are fascinating in their diversity.

Hi OP 👋

Interesting thread. I have acquired aphantasia after a head injury and post concussion syndrome a decade ago. I still find it devastating even now, as I had a brilliant mind's eye and imagination, and could see anything I wanted, could escape from the world and live inside my head.

Reading fiction is a lot less enjoyable now too, as I can't follow the plot so easily, or visualise the characters. I truly miss it. I miss knowing what I had, the loss, the way I loved being able to picture my family, or people who I miss having around now they're gone. Looking at photos is great, but not the same as vivid pictures in my mind. 😪

I'm hyperphantasia there isn't anything I can't visualise vividly.
It's not so great for trauma or anything you dont want visualise as a pp said.

I'd feel heartbroken if I lost it tbh. It's gotten me through really tough times and alot of stress.

One of my DCs has a very vivid visual imagination also. He also has synaesthesia (which I first heard about on MN). He sees words as colours, particularly numbers. Oddly enough he struggles at regular maths but has a gift for just reading and calculating huge numbers. He says he sees the colour patterns in the numbers.

it’s where the phrase the mind’s eye comes from.

when someone says, “I can still see my childhood home in my mind’s eye,” they mean they can vividly imagine it from memory.

I can relive entire experiences in my mind’s eye. E.g replaying the experience (can be anything) and seeing everywhere I have been and remembering visual images in quite a lot of detail which in turn brings back the emotions I felt at the time and I can stop in my mind and spend longer over a particular bit than I actually did on the real life thing

Yes, most people who can’t see images don’t realise other people can.

My husband can’t see images and only found out well in his 50s that others can. He said when his teacher at school used to say ‘picture in your mind…’ that this was just a phrase. He didn’t realise others actually were picturing in their mind.

I thought everyone thinks in words ( I do see images too) but from chatting to others, I realise not everyone does.

Mind blown.

Really? I always assumed that the lack of imagination that autistic people can have linked the two. There are various autistic presentations though and you can have more of one and less of another.

I would push back on the idea that there is research that fully represents a statistic like this, though, simply because there are so many undiagnosed autistic people who assume they are NT.

Having said that, though, two of my autistic children have much better imaginations than I do.

I am a writer and absolutely know what it's like to have the opposite of aphantasia as I used to have it. Now I don't, and it's so much harder to read fiction. 😪

Me too, likewise ‘count sheep’ - an idea that made zero sense to me as a child.

My whole family of 5 has it. I suspect we are all ND!

Yes, it is absolutely heartbreaking to lose it. I'm still heartbroken a decade after losing my mind's eye 💔

Neither me or DH can see images in our minds but I see images in dreams perfectly well and have full control so can rewind, change the dream etc. I think this is why I never had nightmares as a kid, I just stopped the dream and switched for a better one or overwrote what had happened.

I also have issues recognising people and so does my DH.

I’ve just asked my 6yr old whether she can picture the cat and she said yes she actually sees a cat.

Wow that's me. No movie. Just a radio play. I love radio anyway but never picture characters as real people.

When the op said cat. No image. I know what a cat is, but don't image it.

I have aphantasia. I think it can help in some ways with sleep. When I close my eyes everything is black. I don’t get flashbacks of events but equally I often can’t remember places I have been and things I have seen.
i don’t really remember dreaming either but do dream occasionally.

I think I’m glad I can completely switch off images when I go to bed 🙏

It's unusual but not vanishingly rare. I know a few people with it.

Sorry, I thought that too. If you can think in images. You will have images when listening to the radio. So even if it’s the news, I have a mental image of what the newsreader looks like ( though I have no idea what they look like in real life) and visual images of what they are talking about on the news).

So you don’t get any images or voice in your mind at all? It’s blank?

That sounds really lonely. I keep myself entertained with my inner chats and pictures.

I can then make my mind empty when I want to sleep. It’s like a switch. I just stop thinking and fall asleep in 30 seconds.

DH and one of my DC lie awake for hours at night because they can’t stop thinking (and imagining!). I find that strange too!

I can't see things like a cat ir an apple. However I can very easily imagine what a certain colour will look like in a room, in any light. And I can work out the best layout for a kitchen (for example) in my head. I don't know how. I can draw it in a very rudimentary style, then my husband turns it in to a 3d drawing, which he easily does.
I'm very good at knowing if I've seen someone before, facial recognition is good.
Sense of direction generally very good and I like to understand a new city by looking at hhe map and learning landmarks, which way is north etc. So somewhere in my brain I'm visualising ia map, but i can't see it.
Food - i can easily imagine what flavours work together, rarely follow a recipe and mostly make delicious food ( according to friends and family) and I put that down to being able to know what ot will taste like.
Dreams aren't regukar, but are pictures.

Brains are just amazing.

I never read the descriptions in books as I don't really have a picture in my mind of what the author is trying to convey.

I can see a cat, a house etc in my mind but there's nothing specific about them. They'd be like a very simple black and white drawing.

I wonder if people with aphantasia are less likely to get ptsd then.

I found out about this a few years ago. Until then I had no idea people actually saw images in their head.

When someone says 'relax, imagine yourself lying on a beautiful beach' that is what I do, I think about what it looked like, I think about what it felt like but no I absolutely do not see anything. I had no clue people did.

I find it very hard to visualise things I need to see something before I will know if I like it.

No, it only relates to pictures, not voice. I have a constant inner monologue, just no accompanying images.

I found out recently that I have aphantasia (mid-50s). 3 out of 5 of our family have it, we are all nd.
I can’t even picture my children or husband. At the same time I ‘know’ what they look like - it’s not a loss iykwim. If someone says ‘imagine an elephant’ - I do that, but without images- it’s like imagining the essence of an elephant. Big, grey, leathery, dusty etc. Whereas my husband can rotate the elephant in his mind 360 degrees.

I have this (never knew it had a name) and people are always surprised if I mention it and find it hard to believe. So I don’t think it’s rare in that it’s “1 in 10 million” or something, but it’s uncommon.

I do love reading despite the lack of picture in my head. I do find it affects how I read though, I often skim read heavily detailed descriptions or action scenes just enough to find out what happened that is relevant to the plot.

I also don’t have a constant inner monologue, I actively have to choose to think about something (if that makes sense).