@zentist · Joined April 2023
On “Is anyone else unsure if they have acquired or congenital aphantasia due to SDAM?”
i recognize myself in photos but don´t remember doing what I was doing in most of them. It does not bother me since we can only live in the present and I am fully there. My explanation to others is that it feels like someone else lived my prior life because i really have very few moments that i can remember and then only vaguely. Going slightly off topic, there are almost no photographs of me as a child so I cannot even use them to stimulate memories. I also do not have photos of anyone in my house and although I do quite like to take photos when I am traveling I do not look at them afterwards. they stay on my hard drive until i need space and then are deleted.
How does the experience of memory differ among those who can’t visualize? Is the impact of severely deficient autobiographical memory a greater challenge?
On “SDAM - Self-Identity”
for me SDAM in no way means not knowing who I am. I am very well aware of who I am and have no particular problems of self esteem, self worth or any such things. It is more the feeling that someone else lived my past life because I have so little detail available about the events and the people in my past. Tie this in with no effective visual memory and you can see that there is very little connection or interest in the past. I have no photos in my house and the digital photos i do take I almost never look at afterwards. I enjoy the process of taking photos but have no interest in using them as a memory replacement. The past belongs to the other guy :-)
On “Has anyone found an effective way to meditate?”
I started meditation about 15 years ago through Buddhist retreats and found the visualization based meditations like "loving kindness" difficult, although I was able to imagine the concept of a person and follow the flow of the meditation without actually having any visual imagery. However, this seemed like a lot of work so I changed to breath based meditation which requires no visualization and is actually easier for people with aphantasia than for the majority of folk. My meditation process is aimed at taming the so called monkey mind - the rapidly changing and apparently random thoughts that fill the mind if it is not subject to some discipline. in my case these thoughts are not accompanied by images or emotional content so it is rather a rational process. the thought appears without an invitation and when i recognize it I put it aside. Since there is no imagery or emotion tied to the thought it is not difficult to put it aside. I imagine that would not be the case for non. aphants.
On “Mind Is Blown”
OK if you look at postings you will see that some people react like you to the diagnosis of Aphantasia and others are just happy to find like minded people.
On “Drawing from memory”
i have Aphantasia and my picture of a bike would be conceptual. two wheels and a frame, very much stick person. so i think you are probably on the wrong track. now if you asked people to draw a picture of their own bike you might see a difference. in my case it would be almost the same.
On “What realizations have you had since learning about aphantasia?”
i watched an interview with and investigator into SDAM. Dr Levine i believe. It was very interesting. One of the things he said was that there was ZERO evidence of what is popularly known as photographic memory. Much of what Aphantasics envy simple does not exist. If you say you cannot visualize you should not be surprised that the response is exagerated as in "Oh yes. I have photographic memory". That would be useful if it existed but simple visualization is not particularly useful given that 95% of the world can do it. Not an USP (unique selling point). Envy is one of the deadly sins. it has no positive aspect but in so many Aphantasic posts it is there. i am not going to question if you partner can really do what she says. it does not matter any more than the fact that your neighbour is taller than you.
On “Maybe You Have SDAM?”
i can certainly relate to the content of this post, but what you say and especially the comments make me feel that we are overicing the cake. We do not have "unique problems". it should not matter that other people can visualize any more than it should matter that some people are born rich and we were not. That is life. in a lot of the posts on Aphantasia (but not all) I see envy, self-pity and self-induced trauma. It is not cancer. It is not being born in a third world county without running water, health care or the certainty of being able to eat each day. No employer ever refused to hire me because i was not a visualizer. no girlfriend refused to date me for that reason. no neighbour put a sign out "No Aphants". It is not a disability. there is no obvious need to be able to visualize even in the arts. In fact, it could even be seen as an evolutionary step. a number of my friends have said that they envy the calm and the lack of Ego that can be implicit in Aphantasia. Mind you, I move in circles where materialism is not valued and egoism is seen as negative.
Navigating the chaos of busy environments can feel overwhelming; how do others manage sensory overload while seeking calm?
Visual memory shapes our connection to the past. How does the absence of vivid recollections influence your sense of personal history?
On “What do typical visualizers experience?”
Sounds like there are hard core aphantasics and wannabes. The condition has only been in the public eye (no pun intended) for a few years and it looks to be going the way off gluten intolerance. I see nothing. I am also agoraphobic and have fear of heights. I have seen nothing about these conditions being related. Is there any research on this aspect?
On “What do typical visualizers experience?”
Hi Leanne. It is not difficult to know if you are aphantasic. Close your eyes. Think of the person or thing you love most in the world. If all you see is black then you are aphantasic. Friends have told me they see like a movie or a photo. Not me. Just black. Freinds have told me they see like a movie or a photo. Not me. Just the black.
On “Just found out I’m aphantasic at 68”
I am aphantasic and like you was surprised to find out that people actually saw things in that minds eye. I still worry though, but not about imagined catastrophies. No news is good news. However, there is a possible social issue here. A few years back I was robbed at gunpoint. I was with about a dozen people but it was me and my girlfriend who were the ones actually robbed. Once it was over most of the others were all upset or crying but not me. I told them, we were not shot so let's go and get a beer. I can only suppose that the others were running a movie on their minds about what could have happened to them. I can not do that. I did notice that the others were surprised by my reaction and nobody else was up for a beer.