Aphantasia | Vital Football

Aphantasia

kefkat

kefkat

Vital Football Legend
@CDX_EIRE

So this is the condition as per the subject box of not being able to visualise I didn't know existed until the last year.

I dream in pictures though. It's when I am awake I can't conjur up an image. It was a shock to realise people can actually conjur up pictures in their head.

I just thought people thought about pictures. Though not always the case it's one of the common threads of people who are neuro diverse which I also found out I was this past year.

I have a very good memory so that doesn't pertain to me. I also have a good inner dialogue and why I say alot about subjects as I orally talk out with emotions my pictures.

Anywhere here is a link for anyone interested.

Whilst it's not a disability on it's own. It's a neurological characteristic, it does affect other parts of cognition with reading etc. as I cant imagine pictures of the story meaning the stories can just bounce off the page and not sink in easily.

Anyway here is a read for you

www.psychologytoday.com

Aphantasia

Aphantasia is the inability to form mental images; a person without a mind’s eye cannot imagine the scene of a sandy beach, for example. They cannot visualize people, places, objects, or other images. This is not a clinical disorder or disability, it is considered a neurological characteristic...
www.psychologytoday.com www.psychologytoday.com
 
kefkat said:
dream in pictures though. It's when I am awake I can't conjur up an image. It was a shock to realise people can actually conjur up pictures in their head.
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It's more of a shock to find out that people can't. How else can you dream, and when awake if someone mentions going for a coffee, or getting your haircut etc, don't you instantly get the visuals to accompany the thought?
 
wittonite said:
It's more of a shock to find out that people can't. How else can you dream, and when awake if someone mentions going for a coffee, or getting your haircut etc, don't you instantly get the visuals to accompany the thought?
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No nothing at all! About 4% of the population have this. That's nearly 3 million of the population. It was a shock to me too as I didn't know any different.

It just comes in thought which is why I describe alot. Whilst I do dream when I'm asleep in pictures I dream far less than the average apparently.

I know a few people with it who never knew either. I'd got to 60 before I found out about it. I have a large inner monologue on things though. I'm a descriptive person

It's all a shock to the person too
 
kefkat said:
just comes in thought which is why I describe alot. Whilst I do dream when I'm asleep in pictures I dream far less than the average apparently.
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I wouldn't be too upset about the dream situation if I were you. When I had my mini stroke last year as part of the after stroke treatment I was put on Statins. I was told to take them last thing at night, and the accompanying dreams were so vivid it was like actually living in them. I take it at 16.00 hours now, and no trouble. If I occasionally forget and take at 19.00 the vivid dreams are straight back.
 
I have vivid dreams virtually every night and quite regularly I have multiple different dreams in between waking up. They are all completely benign.
 
My mental images are pretty vivid, when I look at a map and see where I am. I take a mental image of it and I sort of plop myself into the map and make a bit of a 3d image out of it. Then I know where to go from there or if I am trying to remember my way back from somewhere I do something similar.

@kefkat this was the one I was a bit more interested in and the implications of it.
  • About 30 to 50 percent of people regularly think to themselves in internal monologues.
  • Inner monologues have a function in language development and in information and memory processing.
  • This phenomenon demonstrates a rich diversity of experience in what we deem to be "normal" thought lives.
www.psychologytoday.com

How Inner Monologues Work, and Who Has Them

... and what happens when people can't turn them off.
www.psychologytoday.com www.psychologytoday.com
 
kefkat said:
@CDX_EIRE

So this is the condition as per the subject box of not being able to visualise I didn't know existed until the last year.

I dream in pictures though. It's when I am awake I can't conjur up an image. It was a shock to realise people can actually conjur up pictures in their head.

I just thought people thought about pictures. Though not always the case it's one of the common threads of people who are neuro diverse which I also found out I was this past year.

I have a very good memory so that doesn't pertain to me. I also have a good inner dialogue and why I say alot about subjects as I orally talk out with emotions my pictures.

Anywhere here is a link for anyone interested.

Whilst it's not a disability on it's own. It's a neurological characteristic, it does affect other parts of cognition with reading etc. as I cant imagine pictures of the story meaning the stories can just bounce off the page and not sink in easily.

Anyway here is a read for you

www.psychologytoday.com

Aphantasia

Aphantasia is the inability to form mental images; a person without a mind’s eye cannot imagine the scene of a sandy beach, for example. They cannot visualize people, places, objects, or other images. This is not a clinical disorder or disability, it is considered a neurological characteristic...
www.psychologytoday.com www.psychologytoday.com
Click to expand...

seems a bit like, trying to get to grips, with finnegans wake, which is all about dreaming and not understanding much,,,seanie
 
James06 said:
I spoke to someone else who has this, I felt so sorry for them. I am an avid reader and realised that having this condition makes reading pretty pointless. For me that would be awful.
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When you have never known any different you are used to it.

Strangely enough I love reading however a book has to really engage me in an inner monologue as I don't do pictures.

It's probably why I prefer non fiction to fiction. I am very selective on fiction what I read.

I have to be able to conjur up emotions with it which is why I'm very passionate with what I believe in and why I take on causes and I'm an activist.

I'm very high on the empath scale too which I've got better at managing over the years.

Lived experience, real life, spiritual, self help, and various types of other non fiction books are for me
 
CDX_EIRE said:
My mental images are pretty vivid, when I look at a map and see where I am. I take a mental image of it and I sort of plop myself into the map and make a bit of a 3d image out of it. Then I know where to go from there or if I am trying to remember my way back from somewhere I do something similar.

@kefkat this was the one I was a bit more interested in and the implications of it.
  • About 30 to 50 percent of people regularly think to themselves in internal monologues.
  • Inner monologues have a function in language development and in information and memory processing.
  • This phenomenon demonstrates a rich diversity of experience in what we deem to be "normal" thought lives.
www.psychologytoday.com

How Inner Monologues Work, and Who Has Them

... and what happens when people can't turn them off.
www.psychologytoday.com www.psychologytoday.com
Click to expand...

Reading on that I most definitely have a high inner monologue. I've learnt through my spiritual life over the years how to manage it through mediation and journalling, has my inner monologue can go round and round like a stuck on spin washing machine
 
As I said on the politics thread that I have this too.
One sad thing is I can't visualise my mother or father who are no longer here.
But I have photos.

Dreams feel real and have plots but aren't visual.

Its hard to describe but I think I remember things by remembering facts about them rather than an image. An Apple is green, round but with indents at top and bottom, with a thin brown stalk...etc

I worked in software and could hold huge amounts of details in my mind so it's not a limitation.
 
kefkat said:
Reading on that I most definitely have a high inner monologue. I've learnt through my spiritual life over the years how to manage it through mediation and journalling, has my inner monologue can go round and round like a stuck on spin washing machine
Click to expand...
I can't turn my brain off. I'm always dwelling on.. mainly diy plans.
 
Gillette said:
As I said on the politics thread that I have this too.
One sad thing is I can't visualise my mother or father who are no longer here.
But I have photos.

Dreams feel real and have plots but aren't visual.

Its hard to describe but I think I remember things by remembering facts about them rather than an image. An Apple is green, round but with indents at top and bottom, with a thin brown stalk...etc

I worked in software and could hold huge amounts of details in my mind so it's not a limitation.
Click to expand...

Yes that's how we do it! By connection of. I've always been a big photo person too. I have always had alot of photos on display.

I am pretty good at description too. I think it's one of the reasons our brains don't shutup. That's why I journal to get the trash out of my head and beable to sift through the info
 
Gillette said:
I can't turn my brain off. I'm always dwelling on.. mainly diy plans.
Click to expand...

Join the club, I was 14 when a mate said I'd think myself to death as I was coming up with scenarios that would never happen.

I've learnt to shut myself off for sleep by basically writing stories in my head and I know its working when I drift from the script to random images I see, but I can fart myself out of it - and I'm wide awake again.

Does my head in, but for me I always have images in dream even though I struggle with spatial awareness in conscious thought, and I struggle recalling lost faces.
 
Inner conversations are a gift and a curse, it’s interesting to see how many people do not have them.

I have a great memory and I believe intense inner conversations drive this. The down side is that these “conversations” do not switch off easily. At this stage of my life most of my daily efforts revolve around reducing these conversations.
 
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