aphantasia?

[g u a v a]

the first sentence on the wikipedia article for aphantasia describes this as "the inability to voluntarily create mental images in one's mind."

do you experience this? did you know aphantasia existed? are you able to visualize objects in vivid detail or not so much? maybe somewhere in the middle?

 

[daringred_]

finally, my time to shine!

i'm pretty sure i have aphantasia. (which is a little ironic since i'm also a maladaptive daydreamer and have very vivid/wild dreams.) i didn't know it existed originally, but i saw a random youtube video several years ago by an artist who also has it, and that's where i learned of the term. it's a little hard to explain what it's like though? say, for example, you asked me to picture a red apple. i won't be able to 'see' a red apple, but i know and remember what a red apple looks like. i don't know if that makes any sense. my only method of 'picturing' stuff is to describe it with words in my head, which is usually how i daydream and probably explains why my writing is generally quite detailed, or outline it gradually. i still can't see anything, but i know what i should be looking at. so, for example, if i wanted to picture two of my characters standing together, i would normally start from the feet up and go over almost a list of what it should look like. so, their footwear, whether their legs are straight or if they're standing a certain way, then their outfits, where their hands/arms are etc. all the way up until i have a complete idea. if it's an 'image' i've had some experience imagining, i can usually just call upon the memory and don't have to go through this whole process. i just know. it's really hard to explain lol because you can't know exactly what other people 'see' in their mind's eye.

 

[CrankyCupcake]

Whatever the opposite of aphantasia is, I have that.

It's why I ask Santa for an OFF switch every year. My brain will make me see whatever idea pops into my head. It's hard to have a conversation with people sometimes because I keep "seeing" whatever the subject is. Which is why I'd always be the first one to say "Too much information!" if a friend starts giving details I don't need to know. What makes it worse is that I'm a hopelessly pessimistic person and a worrywart, and my head will not hesitate to give me vivid imagery of what happens when things go wrong. Down to the finest, horrifying details. It's... exhausting. That's why I keep myself very busy and have too many hobbies. If my mind is left to its own devices, nothing good comes out of it.

 

[Bluebellie]

I have the exact opposite. I visualize waaaaaay too much. Right now I’m about to move to a new house and I’ve already visualized in my head where all the furniture would go, what decorations I would use, and what color I would paint the walls, etc. Before I had received New Horizons I had Visualized in my how I wanted my whole town before hand as well. I do this with everything. My mind is always working on overload.

 

[skarmoury]

Oooo I had no idea about that. I also probably have the opposite LOL. I think *very* vividly, probably from my years of practice as an artist. I will sometimes daydream about the story I'm writing and I suddenly have a lot of details drafted for a scene that I just thought about: the characters' outfits, the colors, the hairstyles, the expressions, the settings; my mind just drafts everything at once. It's also how I can do a very, very quick but rough sketch.

The downside to a very vivid thinking is that I start to overthink, and if it's negative thoughts clouding my head, it just gets worse the more vivid and real the scenarios look in my head.

 

[daringred_]

i just want to jump back in and say having aphantasia does not automatically mean you can't think vividly, in detail or have a strong imagination etc. as i'm still capable of all three. just felt like putting that out there because the wording above makes it sound like people think the two things are mutually exclusive. it's just about whether or not you can 'see' something in your mind's eye. so, if i were to imagine a scene from my story, i wouldn't be able to see it, but i can still imagine it because i can describe (with words) each aspect and have enough knowledge to know what x, y and z would look like to the point where i could almost picture it. it also doesn't stop you from overthinking or even having vivid thoughts because those thoughts can instead be more about you describing a worst case scenario and the feelings that would be associated with it rather than just simply envisioning it. that's all based on my experience, at least. i've no doubt it differs between people. hopefully that clears things up.

 

[g u a v a]

it sounds like most of you have hyperphantasia! that's amazing. according to research aphantasia is pretty uncommon so it's interesting to see that reflected so far in the thread.

i have aphantasia and i never really knew that other people didn't experience it until recently. to sum it up, when i close my eyes and try to picture something all i see is black. there's at times very faint outlines if the object is something incredibly rudimentary and simple. most of my visualization isn't actually me creating new images but recalling lived experiences.

in contrast to most of the replies, i don't really see this as being an up/downside. it's more of just a fact of how i experience life. my brain is constantly going and going but the only difference is i can't visually experience my thoughts, but i can still hear and feel them.

i would like to also tack on that we all have imaginations and the vividness of it is not determined by aphantasia. aphantasia simply means having an image-free imagination. according to some, it's more of a spectrum of visualization with hyperphantasia being at one end and aphantasia being at the other. most people are likely to fall somewhere in the middle ranges.

gonna leave a couple of links here for people who might want to learn more about this:
https://aphantasia.com/faqs/
https://aphantasia.com/vviq/

 

[Croconaw]

I visualize way too much, but I think I’m somewhere in the middle.

 

[Belle T]

Research on this condition has only existed since about 2015, and it just blows my mind how it's taken so long for someone to document this phenomenon.

Of all places, I learned about the condition from a Game Grumps episode, where Ross says something along the lines of "I thought that phrases like 'visualize' or 'picture in your head' were figurative expressions. I didn't know that people could literally do that." It's incredible. I thought I was the only one. I'm so happy that it now has a name and that I realize I'm not alone. It might go a way in explaining why I have such a strong preference for slice of life, relatable material, rather than large, epic fantasies. Because even if I can't visualize the experience itself, I can logistically understand them better than, say, a vivid description of a space ship.

Also, I'd like to echo @daringred_ 's post. Aphantasia does not mean-

• You lack imagination.
• That you can't have vivid thoughts or be meticulously detailed.
• That you can't learn from visual reference.
• That you can't draw upon a mental visual framework.

All it means is that you can't visually make out things with your mind's eye at will, not that you can't plan or conceptually idealize things. I have an extremely overactive imagination. And I'm the kind of person who will annoy her friends with the amount of to-the-letter planning and detail that I do. The condition has largely been described as "your mind's eye is blind," and that's a pretty apt description. For that reason, I'd also be hesitant to describe something as hyperphantasia unless they literally have such a problem that they no longer have complete agency over their own life.

 

[Peach_Jam]

I don't think I have it, but I knew someone that did. he enjoyed reading novels, but explained that he couldn't visualize/picture things like other people can. he also mentioned not having vivid dreams and struggling with word problems where u have to set up a situation.

 

[moo_nieu]

im confused bc i didnt think anybody could actually see stuff when they imagine it. i have a pretty vivid imagination as well as anxiety so i definitely experience what other here have described about imagining horrible situations playing out, but do you all actually see that when you close your eyes? i can picture things in my mind but i dont actually see them. if i think about an apple i can imagine little drops of moisture, specks of yellow, white, and dark red, a stem, and a leaf but i dont actually conjure up an image that i see.. i guess sometimes i can get almost a glimpse but its more like a flash of something i imagined. i dont think i have aphantasia since sometimes i would do mental math by picturing the equation in my mind although thats more flashes also i cant just get a clear image of that happening throught the problem, i have to constantly reimagine it in order to maintain that "image". i thought this was how imagination worked for most everyone else so its interesting to hear everyones replies!

 

[Bloodflowers]

This is fascinating. I read about aphantasia on Reddit a while ago and I think I’m on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. If I close my eyes and try to visualise an apple I can see the colour, feel the texture and even smell the scent of the apple. I can also vividly picture the tree I picked it from, the surrounding forest and sky, the sound of the birds, everything as if I am actually there. I didn’t realise for a very long time that not everyone can do this.

 

[Belle T]

im confused bc i didnt think anybody could actually see stuff when they imagine it. i have a pretty vivid imagination as well as anxiety so i definitely experience what other here have described about imagining horrible situations playing out, but do you all actually see that when you close your eyes? i can picture things in my mind but i dont actually see them. if i think about an apple i can imagine little drops of moisture, specks of yellow, white, and dark red, a stem, and a leaf but i dont actually conjure up an image that i see.. i guess sometimes i can get almost a glimpse but its more like a flash of something i imagined. i dont think i have aphantasia since sometimes i would do mental math by picturing the equation in my mind although thats more flashes also i cant just get a clear image of that happening throught the problem, i have to constantly reimagine it in order to maintain that "image". i thought this was how imagination worked for most everyone else so its interesting to hear everyones replies!

Worth a note that it's not an have-it-or-don't-have-it condition. The condition exists in degrees, not just in binary. So if you have difficulty visualizing more times than not, then it's possible that you have a form of it. As I've heard it described to me before (and I'm not a professional so take it with a grain of salt), close your eyes and think of an apple, then add specific identifying markers to make the apple unique. If you can see it, then you probably don't have it. If you can't see it, then you might have aphantasia. Or, you might just have performance anxiety because I'm asking you to think of it. Either way, it means you might lack something that many people take for granted.

Like you, I can close my eyes and can conceive of something conceptually based on the context of the description, and perhaps in doing that, I can imagine the emotion that such an object might bring. But I can't visually perceive it. If my mind can't make out an object based on description, it will try to substitute it for something familiar. For example, if I'm reading a book and the author explains that a character is speaking on a red telephone with a very specific design, since I can't really make out the design, my mind will just substitute it with any red telephone that I may have seen in the past. But again, I can't actually see it.

And for the longest time, I thought that was true of everyone, and that words and phrases like "visualize" and "picture in your mind" were figurative. And now that I know that most people can do this literally, it's completely changed how I view (pardon the pun) my interactions with other people.

 

[moo_nieu]

Worth a note that it's not an have-it-or-don't-have-it condition. The condition exists in degrees, not just in binary. So if you have difficulty visualizing more times than not, then it's possible that you have a form of it. As I've heard it described to me before (and I'm not a professional so take it with a grain of salt), close your eyes and think of an apple, then add specific identifying markers to make the apple unique. If you can see it, then you probably don't have it. If you can't see it, then you might have aphantasia. Or, you might just have performance anxiety because I'm asking you to think of it. Either way, it means you might lack something that many people take for granted.

Like you, I can close my eyes and can conceive of something conceptually based on the context of the description, and perhaps in doing that, I can imagine the emotion that such an object might bring. But I can't visually perceive it. If my mind can't make out an object based on description, it will try to substitute it for something familiar. For example, if I'm reading a book and the author explains that a character is speaking on a red telephone with a very specific design, since I can't really make out the design, my mind will just substitute it with any red telephone that I may have seen in the past. But again, I can't actually see it.

And for the longest time, I thought that was true of everyone, and that words and phrases like "visualize" and "picture in your mind" were figurative. And now that I know that most people can do this literally, it's completely changed how I view (pardon the pun) my interactions with other people.

sorry i could have been more careful with my wording, i meant i dont think im close enough to that end of the spectrum to qualify. i can kind of modify the apple when i think of one but again its just flashes and not a constant image. its interesting to read how we all experience this!

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I'm not sure...? I know I don't have aphantasia for sure. I could possibly have hyperphantasia. Or maybe just an in-between.
Slightly off topic but my husband has prosopagnosia (face blindness). I can't imagine not being able to recall anyone's face!

 

[LadyDestani]

I have never heard of this so it's very interesting to learn of all of your experiences with this. I definitely do not have aphantasia. I can visualize things very clearly in my mind. For instance, when I read a book, it plays out like a movie in my head. I have strong visual impressions of everything described in the book and fill in the blanks myself to create a full mental image. That's one of the reasons I struggle so much with watching movies or TV shows after I've read a book. I already have a very clear image of what each of the characters and the world look like and if the movie or show doesn't match my mental image closely enough, it creates a disconnect that I can't overcome. If I watch the show or movie first, then I build the visuals from that into my own mental image as I'm reading the book.

 

[Belle T]

I have never heard of this so it's very interesting to learn of all of your experiences with this. I definitely do not have aphantasia. I can visualize things very clearly in my mind. For instance, when I read a book, it plays out like a movie in my head. I have strong visual impressions of everything described in the book and fill in the blanks myself to create a full mental image. That's one of the reasons I struggle so much with watching movies or TV shows after I've read a book. I already have a very clear image of what each of the characters and the world look like and if the movie or show doesn't match my mental image closely enough, it creates a disconnect that I can't overcome. If I watch the show or movie first, then I build the visuals from that into my own mental image as I'm reading the book.

This happens with people with aphantasia, as well. Even if I can't visually interpret the things going on, I still have things like people I might attempt to compare the characters to, or the particular cadence of their voices and the delivery of the dialogue, which can be rather jarring when the film's interpretation of those things is nothing like I had pictured.

 

[.: Meri :.]

My dad and I don't have this, but my mom does! The way it was described to me was like, imagination in different mediums—a photo/illustration vs. a written description. There's the same amount of vividness there, but the means to achieve that level of detail is different, from my understanding of it.