Dear Hailey: I have read your story with interest and attention. I also discovered that I have Aphantasia. I noticed my incapacity to "see" with my mind's eye, as I did, actively, all my life. I am 76 years old. Retired and living in Southern California. I made use of my high power visual ability to create in my mind very complex images of electronic and mechanical systems. Been an Engineer, this was a great mental asset, which I took for granted, until it vanished, without trace, about two years ago. I have consulted a Neurologist, who ordered a EGG and a MRI of my brain. Everything looks normal. I have discovered and learned from many sources which are available on the Internet, in addition to several books I have bought from Amazon. It is actually a very interesting subject. I have now decided to pursue a reversal of my condition, through knowledge and graphic exercises, like "memory game cards", and some other. I would love to continue talking to you to share my discoveries and to follow details of your case. I will give you some recommendations and ideas which may help you, via email, if you would like to do so. Sincerely, George Frank Carrillo [email protected]

So aphantasia has been known to be caused by physical trauma (Look up Adam Zeman, and his patient "MX" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/).It's worthwhile to note that even though its largely genetic (as far as we know), its not always from aphantasic parents (think of it like being left handed, if your parents are, you're more likely to be, but if your parents aren't, you still can be).Additionally I thought I might take some time to suggest some things from my own experience. I'm completely aphantasic, with a possibly hyperphantasic father and a phantasic mother, and although it does limit me slightly (my ability to do wierd tasks like solve rubiks cubes is diminished), its not caused me huge problems in my day to day life.There is actually some advantages to aphantasia in every day life (although what they are may not be obvious). From people I've talked to aphantasics almost always (I haven't met one who doesn't) has amazing spacial recall and memory, and if you take the time to become aware of it, you can use it to do things better than most people (I worked this out after learning to navigate New York City, above and below ground significantly faster than my family, when I was only 12). You also have to be willing to ask people to give information to you in a way that works for you though, find a friend and experiment with having them tell you different things that are normally hard for you to understand, find a way that makes sense to you, and apply that to other things that you do.The last thing I find many (but again, probably not all) people with aphantasia have is a very good sense (and even imagination) of propreoception (positioning and movement of body). Personally this makes me a good martial artist, and I've seen others on this site talk about how they've used it (such as learning to memorise the movements in processes instead of the steps to better learn things).While I have wondered what I'm missing (who hasn't), in my mind aphantasia actually makes me better at a variety of tasks, if I just take the time to identify them.

Dear Hailey: I have read your story with interest and attention. I also discovered that I have Aphantasia. I noticed my incapacity to "see" with my mind's eye, as I did, actively, all my life. I am 76 years old. Retired and living in Southern California. I made use of my high power visual ability to create in my mind very complex images of electronic and mechanical systems. Been an Engineer, this was a great mental asset, which I took for granted, until it vanished, without trace, about two years ago. I have consulted a Neurologist, who ordered a EGG and a MRI of my brain. Everything looks normal. I have discovered and learned from many sources which are available on the Internet, in addition to several books I have bought from Amazon. It is actually a very interesting subject. I have now decided to pursue a reversal of my condition, through knowledge and graphic exercises, like "memory game cards", and some other. I would love to continue talking to you to share my discoveries and to follow details of your case. I will give you some recommendations and ideas which may help you, via email, if you would like to do so. Sincerely, George Frank Carrillo [email protected]

So aphantasia has been known to be caused by physical trauma (Look up Adam Zeman, and his patient "MX" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/).It's worthwhile to note that even though its largely genetic (as far as we know), its not always from aphantasic parents (think of it like being left handed, if your parents are, you're more likely to be, but if your parents aren't, you still can be).Additionally I thought I might take some time to suggest some things from my own experience. I'm completely aphantasic, with a possibly hyperphantasic father and a phantasic mother, and although it does limit me slightly (my ability to do wierd tasks like solve rubiks cubes is diminished), its not caused me huge problems in my day to day life.There is actually some advantages to aphantasia in every day life (although what they are may not be obvious). From people I've talked to aphantasics almost always (I haven't met one who doesn't) has amazing spacial recall and memory, and if you take the time to become aware of it, you can use it to do things better than most people (I worked this out after learning to navigate New York City, above and below ground significantly faster than my family, when I was only 12). You also have to be willing to ask people to give information to you in a way that works for you though, find a friend and experiment with having them tell you different things that are normally hard for you to understand, find a way that makes sense to you, and apply that to other things that you do.The last thing I find many (but again, probably not all) people with aphantasia have is a very good sense (and even imagination) of propreoception (positioning and movement of body). Personally this makes me a good martial artist, and I've seen others on this site talk about how they've used it (such as learning to memorise the movements in processes instead of the steps to better learn things).While I have wondered what I'm missing (who hasn't), in my mind aphantasia actually makes me better at a variety of tasks, if I just take the time to identify them.