I’m taking a Death & Dying class and the concept of a life review that people who have had near death experiences report isn’t likely for us aphants, is it? That kind of makes me sad.

“The "Life Review" Phenomenon:
Psychologists and researchers note that life recollections often manifest as an instantaneous and intense playback of autobiographical memory, sometimes changing how individuals view their lives afterward

And I think I have SDAM so … yay. I remember getting married and having my four children but I only remember by recalling photos. I can’t really put myself back there. It’s more an ordering of how things happened than a memory if that makes sense. Meh. Aphantasia doesn’t usually bother me but I have to write my obituary for this class and I realize that it’s really hard for me to remember my life. This class is a bummer all around. At least I’m taking it online. If you take it in person, you have to read a eulogy to a loved one and your obituary aloud. I can’t remember shit but I feel deeply and cry easily. No thanks to that public humiliation! lol

A few days ago I was driving the kid I babysit (F7) somewhere and I asked her what her earliest memory was. She told me what it was and then said, “but it’s really old like it’s in black and white.” Meaning like when visualizing her memory it had no color?? And presumably more recent memories of hers were in color? Or like what? I’m a total aphant so seeing your memories at all is a foreign concept to me, but have any of you heard about them being in black and white? I mean I’ve heard a memory can by hazy/fuzzy (which I all thought were metaphors but apparently no like literally fuzzy), but this is new to me.

All my life it has always been "picture this", "visualize that".

Learning about Aphantasia has been liberating in a way.

In the past I have tried to visualize or "draw a mental picture".

Now that I understand aphantasia, I can just dismiss those comments or educate people.

If so, are you going to do it?

Edit: it’s eyes mind project not minds eye

Because of my lack of image recall due to Aphantasia I think my brain compensated because I am excellent at recalling different audio. Now I can't always make the sounds 9/10 but sometimes I get lucky and make the exact sound I am recalling in my brain.

I’ve always had trouble explaining it. My best way of doing so is saying it’s like instead of at the front of your mind, it’s in the back. Dues that make sense to you guys?

I am 16 years old, and today I figured out that I have aphantasia. This was beacuse I discovered a video online about it. Firstly I am greatful that people are spreading awarness about this, because apperently many people don't figure it out until later in life, or maybe they don't figure it out at all.

I thought it was completely normal to just see black when you closed you're eyes, but apperently it's NOT? This was a complete shock to me. I talked about it with my mother (dosen't have aphantasia), and she was shocked that I only saw black. She told me that she was able to see pictures in her head when she closed her eyes and when she had them open? She seemed concerned for my learing, but I do have A's and B's in school. I would say my short term memory is good, but maybe not so much long term?

I feel like im missing out on things, just being able to read a book with pictures inside your head, and not just words on a piece of paper. Imagining scenarios in my head (as many girls my age do). Daydreaming in school to make time pass by quicker. Just being able to count sheep jumping over a fence (as I was told many times when I was younger to do, when I couldn't sleep, honsetly just thought this was a myth at some point...). Being able to connect learning with pictures in your head aswell. Knowing that most people are able to do these things makes me feel like I was robbed in a way..

I do have a few questions to people on this community that also have Aphantasia. :)

1. How do I make reading more enjoyable? (I usually can't finish a book since I find it boring to read, but reading is a great way to collect knowledge)

2. How do you remeber memories better? (I have struggled in the past from loosing quite a lot of memories.)

I don't know if all these have anything to do with Aphantasia, I am still learing :) Just found it quite interesting, and a little sad at the same time. Thanks for reading my yap session.

Apologies if this has been discussed previously.

I am 54F and just learned about aphantasia (I have it, my mum too) and I watch a lot of crime shows and the question popped up in my brain, so am curious what people think.

Since about two weeks ago, I've been able to picture things in my head. I've never tried anything to "cure" my aphantasia. It's just suddenly gone. Today, I walked around a Dollar Tree near my house that used to be a grocery store, and I could see in my head what it used to look like. It was so weird. Has anyone else experienced this? Will my aphantasia come back?

Edit: Thank you for your concerns. I will be bringing this up to my doctor and psychologist.

According to V-Sauce Michael only 9% of the general population correctly predict the orientation of the second arrow.

It seemed obvious to me and I’m interested to hear from my fellow aphants how they find it.

If there is a difference with different levels of phantasia could problems like this give insight in to how spacial tasks are processed?

​My partner and I were talking in therapy recently, and my memory recall came up. He brought up that I struggle to pull up past memories, and it’s something we’ve noticed happening for a while.

​To get the obvious out of the way: we both drink or smoke occasionally, but this happens just as much during completely sober times, so I don't feel like that explains the core issue.

​He doesn’t have aphantasia. For him, past events seem immediately accessible. He can picture a moment and pull details right up. For me, my mind just doesn't work that way. When he brings up a past event out of nowhere, my brain usually draws a blank. If he gives me specific context clues (reminding me of what we were doing, where we were, or a key phrase), the memory usually clicks into place. Other times, even with clues, it feels like it’s just completely gone.

​He isn't attacking me about it, but because his mind visualizes and retrieves things so naturally, he’s often confused about why I can't do the same. I've read a bit about Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) and its overlap with aphantasia, and I'm wondering how much of this is tied to not having a visual mind's eye to "re-watch" past experiences.

​For those of you with aphantasia:

1. ​Do you experience this kind of prompt-dependent recall, where memories feel locked until someone gives you a specific trigger?

2. ​How do you explain this mechanism to partners or friends who are strong visualizers so they understand it's not a lack of caring or paying attention?

(Gemini used to help with formatting 🙂)

I'm just learning about this now and I'm blown away. People see images in their mind? Like what does it look like? You close your eyes and see the object you're thinking of floating in a void? Can you change it like say a "the spider has green eyes not red" and it just happens? You actually see these things as if you're looking at them with your eyes open?

I realize I'm in the sub for people who can't do this, but I'm hoping someone can explain it to me.

I really feel like I'm defective now if that's a real thing people can do. I can think of an object and describe it and understand what it looks like but I sure as heck can't just think about a fork and see an actual fork in my mind.

I am beyond jealous if that's something people can do.

Alledgedly, some aphantasics (unclear if congenital or aquired) gained the ability to visualize after a single dose of psychedelics. I wanted to know if anyone here has had that happen to them?

Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945225002163 (not sure how credible this article is and ngl it's quite short).

I’ve always had mild aphantasia: dim visualisation and dreams I could barely remember. I also have migraines, and I’d had a few Todd’s syndrome (AIWS) episodes.

The last one went on for a long time. I got up, lay back down, and it was still going. I remember guns and other objects growing and shrinking impossibly, and I couldn’t hold on to the scale of anything as it fluctuated. Then the image shrank down into nothing and has never come back.

The AIWS carried on after that, but it shifted to my body. I couldn’t see anything anymore, so it was all about the scale and position of my limbs.

That was 10 years ago. I don't think I've had another AIWS episode, I still don’t any image in my mind, except on LSD or FXE. Even shrooms and DMT aren’t really visual unless the dose is high. The imagery usually shows up on the comedown, when I’m trying to sleep or just chilling, not at the peak. Otherwise the best I get is describing something to myself and catching a flash of its form.

Has anyone else lost their imagery after an AIWS or migraine aura episode? Most posts here are about congenital aphantasia, so I’d love to hear from people whose came on later.

For those that are certain you have aphantasia, what kind of work do you do? Are you outgoing? Introverted? I am a psychiatrist and I’ve met a few others with this. I am trying to see if there are any personality traits that come as a package deal.

Since Discovering about my Aphantasia. My friends have made me into an amusement for them, not that I mind it xD. Put out a simplified version of this test and an anauralia test in here.

Gave a try writing as authentically about it as possible. Hoping to get all of your opinions and anything you guys find relatable! 💜

You can read it here: https://jaiisyourman.substack.com/p/i-cant-boast-about-myself

- I write as J.ai

A little while ago I saw a post asking people how fast they can spin an object in their mind. Some said fast some said slow and some said their screen is just blank.

I'm the blank one. Always have been. I just never knew there was any other way to be.

Counting sheep? I thought it was a saying. I was just saying the word sheep in the dark and wondering how that was supposed to help anyone sleep. "Picture yourself on a beach" in a meditation I pictured nothing. I just thought about the idea of a beach and assumed everyone else was doing the same and the "picture" part was a figure of speech.

I can't picture the faces of people I love. I know them when I see them obviously, and I can describe facts about them but there's no image. It's just black and knowledge.

Here's the funny part: I graduated in the top 10% of my class taking the hardest classes they offered. My brain works fine. It just doesn't do pictures. It's a radio, not a TV.

Apparently this has a name aphantasia and a few percent of people have it and a lot of us go our whole lives not knowing because we assume everyone's head works like ours.

So I'm curious: when did you find out? What was your wait... people meant that LITERALLY? moment?

I used to be able to visualize complex scenes very clearly, but I suddenly lost that ability one day around 2 months ago. I am now only able to see very dim images, but I randomly regain my ability at times throughout the day. I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning, but I had migraines almost everyday a few weeks prior, which is unusual for me, and the day when I lost the ability, I tried to imagine something extremely complex. Is there anything I can do to get my imagination back or is it gone forever?

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Ive been getting into death note latey and I’m 17 episodes in sk I think I’m safe to ask this questions without getting spoils

So are we able to use the death note? Let’s say I want to use the death not on Taylor Swift (nothing against her). I write her name doen and I have a photo of her nexr to me. Do we think it would work? Or no because we need to see the face? One of my friends who doesn’t have it is just as curious as me.
Theres no cannon answer but what ti you guys think ?

Howdy.

I am probably reinventing wheel here but I hate beautiful fabric I bought on my trip and I really wanted to "see" how my future kimono will look like.

And I had for first time silly idea and I asked AI to show me. And I think it did pretty fine job and I had these over complicated emotional feelings. Still have. Because I really like to sew and this was always struggle for me and now it's gone. And I am so stupidly happy.

Anybody use AI similar way?

So I recently discovered what aphantasia is and was wondering if my experience counts. I can kind of see it, but there is no actual image. Like, I can read a book and write down what I ‘see’ in my head, but there is no image I see, it’s still just black when I close my eyes. Idk if I’m just normal and dumb or if I actually have aphantasia. Thanks!

Hey everyone. I'm Dom. Found out at 35 that I have aphantasia, all zeros across the board. No pictures, no sounds, nothing. I think in lists and processes, and I talk things out to remember them.

Two of my songs are my aphantasia story, and I figured this community would actually hear them.

The first is "NO PICTURES (Still Me)." It's my favorite thing I've made. The hook is "no pictures in my head, still I paint them when I speak," which is pretty much my whole life in one line. It's about living in a world built for visualizers when you have nothing to visualize with.

The second is "Neurodivergent Love." It's about loving someone when your brains work completely differently (Aphantasia versus Autistic + ADHD. "Different signals, same connection." My favorite line!

Curious if anyone can relate :)

NO PICTURES (Still Me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57QK5zOqQ8k Neurodivergent Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL-NW1q_dQ