Hey Martin, loved your article, thank you. Your 'coping strategies' really resonated with me. When I read over a journal entry, I don't 'recognise' the person who wrote it. And ditto with your experience of a video blog/photo/reflection. I was legit worried for my sanity - it's good to know it's just a case of aphantasia with SDAM.

Hey Jamie - this is totally true for me. But I didn't even realise it until I read your post. When I tried to 'describe' my face, I came up with 'eyes, nose, mouth, brown hair'. Shape of mouth? No idea - it's a mouth. Size of eyes? Um, eye size? Any stand out features? Mmm, don't think so. Curiously, I've observed when I use CBD (I have it for medicinal puposes) that I get a surprise when I see my own reflection. Like I don't recognise myself. I figured this was something to do with being a bit high, but now I wonder if it is mores o related to having aphantasia? And the reason I only notice it occuring when I'm high is because other times, my logical brain 'knows' that the reflection is me, but when I'm on CBD, I tend to get out of my logical brain and into my emotional one. So I'm more surprised when I see my reflection. It takes me a hot minute to "accept" (or reason) that the image looking back at me, is me. Thanks for the post, it's given me something to ponder.

Hey Martin, loved your article, thank you. Your 'coping strategies' really resonated with me. When I read over a journal entry, I don't 'recognise' the person who wrote it. And ditto with your experience of a video blog/photo/reflection. I was legit worried for my sanity - it's good to know it's just a case of aphantasia with SDAM.

Hey Jamie - this is totally true for me. But I didn't even realise it until I read your post. When I tried to 'describe' my face, I came up with 'eyes, nose, mouth, brown hair'. Shape of mouth? No idea - it's a mouth. Size of eyes? Um, eye size? Any stand out features? Mmm, don't think so. Curiously, I've observed when I use CBD (I have it for medicinal puposes) that I get a surprise when I see my own reflection. Like I don't recognise myself. I figured this was something to do with being a bit high, but now I wonder if it is mores o related to having aphantasia? And the reason I only notice it occuring when I'm high is because other times, my logical brain 'knows' that the reflection is me, but when I'm on CBD, I tend to get out of my logical brain and into my emotional one. So I'm more surprised when I see my reflection. It takes me a hot minute to "accept" (or reason) that the image looking back at me, is me. Thanks for the post, it's given me something to ponder.