I have both aphantasia and autism and i wanted to see how many autists also have it.
I’m like that. Weirdly, I can plan out things in my head, like how a piece of furniture should be designed and made, but it’s not a visual process. I just seem to know how it should be. I have virtually no visual component to my imagination, but I can basically listen to entire songs in my mind. It’s only recently that I realised that there are people out there who have no internal monologue! Like their brain is just quiet, and they can get on with stuff without it getting in their way! That’s weirder to me than the presence/absence of visuals etc
The no inner monologue thing threw me for a loop too. No wonder they all manage to get shit done. I’ve always had at least two layers of narration plus music.
I don’t have aphantasia, but I can’t imagine faces very well. I am extremely face blind, though.
I have no inner monologue or minds eye. Trust me, I do not get shit done
This describes me very well. I see nothing but black with shades of gray but can understand/describe how objects look or fit together without issue. My inner dialogue also seems to never stop.
Weirdly, I’m the opposite. It was quite the problem when I was a kid as I couldn’t concentrate on what was in front of me, because what I was seeing in my head felt more ‘real’. I had even conjured up my own mind video game that I would constantly play and expand the mechanics of. I think most of my childhood memories are daydreams.
I still sometimes visualise doing things and then struggle to know if I actually did said thing or just did it in my mind, but this is mitigated as I keep good notes of my activities so I can fact check my memory whenever I need to.
It’s kinda strange for me, because my brain defaults to no imagery, mostly just concepts and text, and a bunch of internal monologues. But if I push it I can come up with some fairly vivid images, especially if it’s of something I’ve seen before. I’m fairly great at remembering places from my dreams, even if I can’t remember what those dreams were about.
That’s mostly how I am, too. If I was to think about an apple, it’s kind of like an encyclopedia page in my head. I see an apple, though the image is foggy, but I see clear text spelling the word and listing everything I know about what an apple is.
I have a wank bank so I’m guessing I don’t have aphantasia?
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I’m curious as to why there’s an “I don’t know” option here. You can literally try imagining something then and there, and then you’ll know.
It’s probably because the description of aphantasia is a bit vague, and those of us who think that we might have it are not sure if our experience matches the description.
As an example, I’ve seen aphantasia described as closing your eyes and not seeing vivid imagery, and I’ve also seen it described as not being able to form any sort of mental image at all, like not even remembering what someone’s face looks like.
I can’t do the first, but I can sort of do the second, so do I have aphantasia?
For what its worth, I definitely do not have aphantasia, but that first description of closing your eyes and non seeing vivid imagery is nonsense. If I close my eyes, I don’t just randomly start seeing things. I only “see” mental images if I think about what things look like. Unless there’s music playing (that I enjoy). If I close my eyes while listening to good music I frequently get all sorts of mental images. However, they don’t start as what I’d call vivid. Instead, they’re faint at first, but get stronger the longer I keep my eyes closed and the music keeps playing.
As a side note, I have prosopagnosia (face blindness), so even though I can visual a tree, or an apple, or even a person, I almost never can visual a face. Like right now, I cannot picture my wife’s face, or my son’s. Sometimes I can, but I’d say that its rare, and I have no idea why sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.
So yeah, those are terrible descriptions of aphantasia (and to be clear, I’m agreeing with your overall point).
that first description of closing your eyes and non seeing vivid imagery is nonsense. If I close my eyes, I don’t just randomly start seeing things.
This is part of the confusion. There are posts and threads where people say that they can see images when they close their eyes. There are other posts where people describe what you have, that they see mental images if they concentrate.
Others, like me, don’t see images, but we know what people and things look like. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t get any sort of picture of my wife, for example, but I can remember her face.
There are posts and threads where people say that they can see images when they close their eyes.
I honestly don’t know if that’s just people not being specific with their words. I mean, “I can see images when I close my eyes” is still an accurate statement for me, even if the images don’t appear unprompted. The idea of unprompted images forming every time I close my eyes is frankly rather terrifying. Closing my eyes is part of my strategy for dealing with over stimulation; if I didn’t have calming dark when I closed my eyes, I think I’d freak the hell out.
No, there were some people who said that they just see images whenever they close their eyes. It sounds really odd to me, but that’s probably because it’s not what I’m used to.
I think if it was something you were born with, you could probably see what you were thinking about, so it would work as a calming method that way, but yeah, it sounds strange.
I don’t “see” things as if I’m looking at them, I see them the way you imagine a taste.
I do a lot of visual thinking and 3D manipulation but I don’t ever actually see it. I also have music playing pretty much all the time whether I like it or not.
I can imagine things in my head but its very very low quality. My brain is mostly full of sounds and abstract ideas. I often think about how something will work instead of what it will look like. Its like everyone is looking at a clock, they know what time it is though they have no idea how the clock works while I am looking at the inside of the clock and I know how everything in it works yet I don’t know what time it is.
So, I didn’t read properly and voted because I have aphantasia but I (probably) don’t have autism
https://aphantasia.com/vviq/ if you are not sure what to answer
I’m actually hyperphantasic, but you can actually cure aphantasia with psychedelics.
I happen to have a very big imagination. Abstract thinking is also easier for me. I have always done really well with really complicated things but always make mistakes on the easy stuff. No idea what that’s about.
Today is my first appointment in the process of getting diagnosed and I’m scared.
Don’t be scared! Knowing yourself allows you to help yourself.
Me.
