emotions and aphantasia

1 min readByBen Rubin

I have aphantasia, and I have noticed that my emotional life has a strange similarity. I have problems with anxiety and depression, but very often experience these feelings without any specificity. I will feel anxious or upset and have no idea why. I have to make a conscious effort to seek out causes, but I never feel like I can truly find one. I can construe a very likely source, but there is never a true sense of connection. I wonder if this could have anything to do with aphantasia.

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Emily tao•recently•edited

Can I ask if your mind feel or your body feel it ? myself it my mind is fine . its my body feel a lot

joannamalinowska4pqgp8•recently•edited

Hi Ben, I have a complete aphantasia, yet I am a hypnotherapist. I see many clients, most can visualize, some cannot, but almost everybody is experiencing emotions without really knowing the source. On the conscious level we can find out what triggers them and learn how to manage them, but the true cause is usually buried deeply in the subconscious mind and connected to some events from the past, sometimes early childhood or later trauma, when we experienced those emotions and they became "wired" in our minds and our bodies. In my opinion, being visual does not give much advantage here. It may help to understand the current triggers, but it may blind situation too. This is because visualization is just the projection of the mind, is what was perceived and interpreted, and not the true, objective picture.

Josh Camden•recently•edited

Hello Ben, What you are describing more closely matches alexithymia however there does seem to be a link between it and aphantasia. I think the hardest part for me to accept that i have alexithymia was the definition itself. It works well for doctors but it doesn't describe the lived experience very well. For me it makes it less likely that i'll notice, recognize, or be able to identify emotional states. google definition - Alexithymia is fundamentally characterized by an inability to identify, describe, and process one's own emotional states. This deficit often creates a profound "disconnect" that can make your own internal experiences feel unreliable or difficult to trust.