Kyle Everett

Great article. I have had a very similar cathartic experience to you but early on began to notice how aphantasia communities on Reddit, Facebook, etc had users ascribing aphantasia as the cause for everything and perpetuating (unintentionally) a very dangerous cycle. The difficulty in properly diagnosing aphantasia I think also plays a role here. It has gotten to a point that I intentionally avoid loaded terms like "visualising" when trying to explain to someone how to know if they have aphantasia. The common 'test' of "Close your eyes and imagine an apple. Do you see it? No, you have aphantasia!" also needs to go. It has caused so many false positives which I feel also contributes to the online aphantasia communities being dens of anecdotal misinformation. Janette's comment noted ADHD which we know appears to have a strong correlation with aphantasia. The same applies to autism. There are many adults with AuADHD who remain undiagnosed - especially if they are females or high functioning men. These people may stumble across aphantasia themselves and self-diagnose, only to now ascribe a myriad of neurodivergent behaviours and habits to aphantasia.