Aphantasia and being a strong shoulder

April 16, 20251 min readByIsabelle H.

I hypothesise that having aphantasia helps with helping others in emotionally challenging situations. I experience that people around me struggle to hear, for example, a detailed story about sexual abuse; it is simply too intense for them to even hear about it from a victim. So, I was wondering if maybe their ability to visualise what they hear makes it difficult for them to keep their inner distance and protect themselves. Even though I am very empathetic and can imagine what anyone may feel, I can mostly keep my distance. Which makes me able to listen to loved ones and their trauma and support them without wearing myself out emotionally. So maybe aphantasia is a key competence for a social worker, etc.?

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Carole Fiset•recently

Interesting... I'm 100% aphantasic. This might explain why I seem to always end up listening to everybody's problems etc... I have huge empathy but even if I feel sad for them and what they're going through - it doesn't "hurt"me. What is also interesting is that I endured 14 years of psychological abuse and yes, my self esteem was completely crushed and I had a very hard time rebuilding it, but now, it's all in the past. No clear recollections, except for a few extreme events. I think I had some type of PTSD but there was no audiovisual component to it ... just the terror and emotions popping up in certain situations. This might also explain why family members got mad at me when I told them about the abuse. I guess images/audio came up for them when I described some of the events. It might explain why they were blaming ME for the pain that my situation caused THEM ! Like, I felt I had to apologize to them because my being abused made them suffer... I guess that as long as I can't figure out how to seek comfort without causing other people distress, the only shoulders I'll be able to lean on will be my own... It's OK, I'm used to it by now... And it's nice to understand why they reacted that way. It's not their fault, they just weren't ready for those visuals...

suzihmbafir4w•recently

I am a retired oncology nurse and was always able to provide compassionate care, yet never brought my work home with me Good question. I’m learning about aphantasia

starla Sholl•recently

Interesting question. I am a social worker, and my specialty is working with folks that had very traumatic childhoods. I’m not sure if being aphantasic led me to this, but i do think it helps to not be able to imagine the visuals.

Krystle Ruano•recently

This is interesting because I currenlty do social work, and I used to do hospice care. It was very easy for me to be there with dying patients, respectfully, and understand my roll without becoming too emotional. Yes I was sad when my favorite patients would pass on, but it was never overwhelming. I can effortlessly "change" my thoughts from something unpleasant, and kind of turn it off in a way, without being bumbarded with sad news (for example). My partner calls it " switching files, or closing files" in regards to my thoughts. Maybe this is my superpower

Evan Gibson•recently

I have similar experiences in aphantasia "protecting" me from many things.

Jamie Mason•recently

I wonder along those lines myself. It would be interesting to have a large biography study to see trends in all areas of the lives of aphantasics.