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

The smelling words thing sounds like synaesthesia.

My god I wish I didn’t - it is exhausting

I have met quite a few people that cant see images in their mind. Its not that rare.

If I close my eyes and imagine my children's faces, I dont see a picture, I feel their image, I can describe in minute detail what I feel - hair, freckles, smile, eyes, lashes. I have never known different. I also dont hear a monologue I feel it when think it but dont hear it. When I hear my recorded voice, its very very weird. This is just my norm, I have never known different.

I didn't know what aphantasia was until late 30s but like you, OP, it suddenly explained why people got upset about film adaptations of books and the characters not being "how they pictured them" (I thought that was a figure of speech) and why I have such poor facial recognition (didn't recognise my own mother when she popped up somewhere unexpected).

I also used to find it a bit mystifying why they would put "wanted" or "missing" persons photos up, because I couldn't understand how you could possibly look at a photo and then spot someone from that photo!

@ForeverDelayedEpiphany it impacts on my ability to read now unfortunately, I had CBT a couple years ago and it made it so much worse.

@Sunninginthecorner - if someone asked you to draw a picture of your best friend from memory, what would you do? Or if they asked you to describe what they looked like?

I guess you’ve never been at risk of confusing a dream for real life, if it’s all just internal monologue with no pictures? Or have any of your dreams nevertheless felt quite “real”?

For me it's being able to create not just an image but the full article. For example, someone in the thread above said 'imagine a shiny red apple on a cutting board' and my mouth started to water because I could imagine the smell of the apple, the sound of the flesh being cut and the juice on the slices - the way the light highlights part of the apple but not other bits, the smell of the oil on the chopping board, the metal of the knife blade...

It is not just seeing one part of a mentioned object but creating an entire scene that involves all of the sense. I can 'feel' that apple in my hand and see how it interacts with the other elements in the scene.

I used to have synaesthesia as a child and still get flashes of it now but it largely wore off. I have ADHD though.

I don't see images, but I am good with faces. My memory is full of very big holes, and what I do retain is usually vague.
My daughter thinks I'm probably autistic and a psychologist said I may have had very early childhood trauma, and likely have cptsd, which can be a cause of aphantasia.
Everyone I know, who I've asked, sees in pictures in great detail. I've always wondered if this is why im so crap at art 😊.

I've concluded that it's linked. Not based on anything rather than my own thinking but I have face blindness and aphantasia and it makes complete sense to me that if I can't picture someone's face in my mind that's going to make it harder for me to remember what people's faces look like.

To what another poster has said - yes I have heard it's also linked to autism. I also suspect some sort of genetic link as several people in my family have both face blindness and aphantasia (although the genetic link could be to the autism!).

When I ask people around me by association (eg work colleague) aphantasia is rare. When I ask around my social circle/relatives it doesn't seem rare but I suspect that's because neurodivergent people tend to club together and being autistic/having ADHD isn't particularly rare in my family/social circle.

[Should have RTFT as I can see someone has debunked the autism aphantasia link]

If you have no visual memory, does that make it hard to retrace your steps without Google Maps to direct you?

I find myself perpetually confused about the definition of this.

I dream movie-style, but read books "radio style".

If I imagine a chair with my eyes open, I can sort of "see it" and it will be detailed, but what I am actually seeing is the room around me. And if I close my eyes, it's not like I see the chair instead, my physical eyes see the blackness whilst my imagination almost holds a separate image.

Only when I dream, I only see the movie.

So I think this means I don't have it, but also that this explains why people are confused?

For me, it's like the information is there, I just can't access it as a picture.

So I have a memory of places I've been, but its a feeling rather than a picture. Home feels homey, Westminister Cathedral feels big, and echoey, and cold. That sort of thing. I can also recollect sounds and music perfectly, and smells quite well, so they're a big part of my sense of a place.

I could tell you what shape my house is and where everything is stored in it, but fuck knows what colour the walls in my hall are right now, and I was the one who painted them six months ago.

I'm good at navigation, as in if I'm in a place I seem to just know where I need to go next, but I'm absolutely awful at giving directions.

And yes, I dream, with big stonking pictures. So the processing equipment is obviously there in my brain somewhere, I just can't access it when awake. A couple of times, when I've been in that sort of half awake period, I've been able to willingly picture things, but it never lasts long.

Its almost like an old library card system, you say banana and I think yellow, curved, smooth leathery skin, thick yellow stalk etc but I have no images just a memorised list of descriptive words that are associated with a banana or an apple etc.
Although I never dream, have no internal monologue or imagery, im dyslexic and asd I have an amazing memory for facts, figures and events. I can remember conversations from years ago if I want to, I've always assumed my memory was a copping strategy for the aphantasia.

At school I was described as having a "photographic memory" and was lead to believe that not everybody had this and it was an asset. We were all encouraged to visualise things to help with learning so I wonder if in some cases where it doesn't come naturally it can be learnt?

I find when I'm reading a book that I subconsciously 'see' the setting. Sometimes it's frustrating seeing a film of a book as they've got it 'wrong'!

It’s not quite that simple for me. I can remember that it’s two rights and a left, or that it’s just after the pub, etc. What I can’t do is visualise the route, there’s just no image there when I try to picture it.

I can remember the facts, but I can recall the associated images.

Consensus bias OP. You may experience this, can’t quite ‘get’ a world where others do not experience this, because it’s outside your experience. If this is a reverse, and perhaps a family member said this to you, there could be a genetic component perhaps? They have it too so assume it’s common.

I don’t think I can see an image, but I definitely have an internal monologue going on all the time.

I have autism, can’t recognise faces, but have hyperphantasia. This means that I can picture something like an apple in my mind so vividly, I could pick it from a tree or from a bowl and eat it.

My memories are like a film. I can literally see and repeat back a conversation word for word like a film. As I’ve got older this has lessened, probably because I’ve got so many films running in my mind.

I don’t talk about it because it upsets people when I tell them exactly what they said when we have an argument.

I always find that a bit weird and I think hits the limit of what words can acurately describe.
I don't SEE things, but I can conjure images, but they're all in my mind, not on my retina (as opposed to what I REALLY see when I close my eyes, some sort of black & white checkered moving patterns).

So I have no idea whether I have this thing or not.

A photographic memory is different - that's the opposite end of the spectrum. Having a photographic memory is rare as well.

I don't think you can learn to visualize if you have aphantasia. You can learn ways to remember without visualising but teachers not appreciating everyone can visualise is also not helpful.

I have this and only discovered it was a thing last year and was equally surprised at how rare it was. I think its always a bit surprising when you discover something that you've always done or not been able to do isn't that common.
I was shocked when I read that some people don't have an inner voice -mine never shuts up. It must be so quiet without.

I have aphantasia and so does my mum, we're both probably undiagnosed ND. I only found out about it when I read about the research. I do have an inner monologue. DS who is diagnosed ND doesn't have it, he has synesthesia though and sees words as colours.

Exactly this. I dislike films of books I've read because the people and places look different to what they do in my head.

I do have a mind's eye and a very annoying internal monologue [and there's ALWAYS music playing] BUT I struggle with faces. Visiting someone in hospital, for instance, is a nightmare finding them in the ward among the sea of heads.

This thread has freaked me out, I must have it as I cannot conjure up a picture at all. I can think Black cat but nothing comes into my minds eye. But I dream, a lot, and now I'm wondering what I'm 'seeing' in those, when I try to think what I ACTUALLY see in them, there's nothing, I don't get it. My dreams must just be a narrative?