195

Aphantasia... apparently 3% of the world has it. Any aphantasists in here, who've had success improving their condition? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Transcendant@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

170 comments fedilink hide all child comments

10 years ago, I'd have put my ability to visualise at 0 out of 10. Practice and occasional halucinogen use has got me to 2 out of 10. It causes no end of problems in day to day life, so I'm interested to hear if anyone has tips or just experiences to share so it doesn't feel such a lonely frustrating issue.

edit informative comment from @Gwaer@lemm.ee about image streaming, I did a bit of digging on the broken links, the Dr isn't giving the info away for free anymore without buying their (expensive) book, but I found some further info on additional techniques here, pages 2/3: https://nlpcourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Image-Streaming-Mode-of-Thinking.pdf

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

        Difficulty with spatial awareness (often have to put the too-small pan lid into the pan before I know it’s too small). I'll likely never learn to drive because I know I'd be a menace
finding routes in unfamiliar places, learning routes takes me a few more times than the average person
I’m a little bit faceblind (I often recognise actors by their voice instead of face)
I’ve always had a bad memory and apparently this is a common trait for aphantasic

[-] morphballganon@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Those first 3 traits are all true of me but I can imagine images quite vividly. I don't think those traits are as rare as the condition.

Imagining a pot around a lid is useless because your mental image can scale.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

can confirm because i have jackshit visual imagination but really good spatial imagination, and thus no such problems.

[-] Caesium@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

ironically, I think my spatial awareness is impeccable because of my aphantasia. Put me in a small area for ten minutes and I'll instinctively know where its safe to move and where stuff is. Also really know how to gauge effective distances in the video games I play. HOWEVER, ask me to assign a value to all this and I'll completely blank out.

[-] M500@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

So when learning routes, do you turn the corner and think, “Oh, yeah. This is here.”?

[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Pretty much hahaha. I'll get a lightning bolt realisation that I'm actually somewhere I know, especially if I'm coming in from a different route / angle.

[-] M500@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing this. I was aware of the condition, but never really thought about it or could think about how it could make life difficult for a person.

This was really interesting to read. I’m guessing their are no treatments for it. I’m going to have to read about this more.

this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023

195 points (94.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27225 readers

935 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.