Weird one to put out there (but as a member of here and the old place for best part of 20 years I think I’ve earned the chance and as one of only two online communities (the other being football) I know here will understand) but feel it’s worth mentioning, I found out through sheer coincidence around 4 or 5 years ago i have a condition called aphantasia.
It is basically an inability to have a “minds eye”, to visualise, day dream, replay memories and often an inability to dream.
That is basically me, counting sheep, picturing an image before drawing, having nightmares, replaying traumatic moments time after time. I can’t do any of those things.
When I discovered what this condition was, how it made your mind tick, it was the closest thing to a revelation I’d ever felt in my entire life. Absolutely arguably completing my understanding of myself, personality, temperament, interests all sorts.
Having done some research that many people who have it go into engineering or technical fields, my world started to make a lot more sense. It explained many other traits:
Ability to deal with trauma/difficult situations and remain calm
Being present in situations
Ability to problem solve and move on from problems quickly
Remembering the world through facts and figures
Struggle with autobiographical memory
Stronger verbal or mathematical skills
Somethings personally I feel I’ve noticed:
Enjoyment of classical or soundtrack music as words are not required
Preference for non fiction over fiction (in books, cinema)
Enjoyment of the spoken word and podcasts to learn
Enjoyment of external stimuli to “go” to somewhere else (I lack the ability to imagine it so being somewhere different is appealing)
Difficulty with art
Aphantasia isn’t severe enough to be any kind of disability it’s more of a trait thats still being understood. I realised if I had known I had this, particularly when I was younger I would have understood myself better and perhaps done some things differently, forgiven myself more and learnt differently.
I wanted to share just in case there’s someone else on this board who wonders why they don’t dream, or have a minds eye or have similar personality traits. And perhaps like me, enjoys a theme park as a visual and audio escape. Maybe they’ve always thought they were a bit different but this may be a reason why! And it’s a great topic to bring up in the pub.
Either way this is one of the videos that really opened my eyes to the subject and wanted to share.
From: https://youtu.be/Xa84hA3OsHU?feature=shared
It is basically an inability to have a “minds eye”, to visualise, day dream, replay memories and often an inability to dream.
That is basically me, counting sheep, picturing an image before drawing, having nightmares, replaying traumatic moments time after time. I can’t do any of those things.
When I discovered what this condition was, how it made your mind tick, it was the closest thing to a revelation I’d ever felt in my entire life. Absolutely arguably completing my understanding of myself, personality, temperament, interests all sorts.
Having done some research that many people who have it go into engineering or technical fields, my world started to make a lot more sense. It explained many other traits:
Ability to deal with trauma/difficult situations and remain calm
Being present in situations
Ability to problem solve and move on from problems quickly
Remembering the world through facts and figures
Struggle with autobiographical memory
Stronger verbal or mathematical skills
Somethings personally I feel I’ve noticed:
Enjoyment of classical or soundtrack music as words are not required
Preference for non fiction over fiction (in books, cinema)
Enjoyment of the spoken word and podcasts to learn
Enjoyment of external stimuli to “go” to somewhere else (I lack the ability to imagine it so being somewhere different is appealing)
Difficulty with art
Aphantasia isn’t severe enough to be any kind of disability it’s more of a trait thats still being understood. I realised if I had known I had this, particularly when I was younger I would have understood myself better and perhaps done some things differently, forgiven myself more and learnt differently.
I wanted to share just in case there’s someone else on this board who wonders why they don’t dream, or have a minds eye or have similar personality traits. And perhaps like me, enjoys a theme park as a visual and audio escape. Maybe they’ve always thought they were a bit different but this may be a reason why! And it’s a great topic to bring up in the pub.
Either way this is one of the videos that really opened my eyes to the subject and wanted to share.
From: https://youtu.be/Xa84hA3OsHU?feature=shared
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