Because of aphantasia, I’m not able to picture things in my mind 

I thought everybody can't visualize image clearly, because all I see is black when I close my eyes. This is so fascinating.

I was 57 years old when my wife told me that she can picture things in her mind. My immediate response was "That is just a figure of speech, nobody actually really pictures anything". I've lived 57 years having no idea that people really pictured images in their Mind's Eye. Oh, wait, what? That is why it's called the Mind's Eye! Wow! Mind blown. It must be really wonderful to conjur up images in one's mind. I am so sad that I cannot do this (all I see is black, nothing but black). I cannot even picture a simple red dot! By the way, something really odd: I dream, night after night, in vivid, beautiful, images full of colors. But only in my dreams - the moment I awake the images are gone. **** Read further down this thread to see a list of seven surprising ways that aphantasia can impact one's life ****

imagine seeing stuff. thats a joke because i cannot see things in my mind.

just found out today that I have it, and I'm currently binging all the videos available about this topic

I'm kinda depressed since I know that I have aphantasia I love imagining things and I never really noticed that I see nothing 🤷🏿‍♀️ and when I really wanted to see someones face in detail I couldn't see it I know how it looks but I can't actually see it. I feel like a part of my life is gone or just dont makes sense.

Imagine having to describe a suspect to the police. I could never

I'm 73. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that I discovered this about myself. It doesn't matter to me one bit, since I've never known any other way....but it is fantastically interesting. :)

I’m a digital beginning cartoonist/artist with aphantasia and my friends keep asking me how do I know what do draw...it’s hard to explain I think in ideas, and facts rather than images😂😂

Does anyone else feel this..feeling of extreme frustration because you feel like you're missing a huge part of living that everyone else has?

Every time I learn something new about this condition it explains more and more things about myself and the way I experience the world. I had never connected my aphantasia to the fact that I couldn't remember what people had worn previously - I just assumed I didn't care about fashion and clothing choices as much as they did! I can't wait for more studies to be done on this condition - I hope they can learn even more about the strengths we aphants possess that we can leverage to our advantage to make up for some of the areas we are missing out on.

when i close my eyes, i can think back of the memory and try to remember how it looked but i cant see it

I have to ask people if I've met them before so I don't repeat introductory questions. I don't have any facial recognition until I've interacted with a person several times. Schools need to educate teachers to be aware of why some students may not excell at mental imagery tasks.

Not having an emotional connection to past experiences is not part of aphantasia. But the broader experience is very similar for me. I was 55 when I discovered that other people could see images in their head. Its a breathtaking, profound realization.

Could this be why I can't do mental math. I can't seem to hold the numbers in my head but give me a piece of paper I do just fine. I also have problems with visually arranging a room. I have to actually move the furniture around. I can't think of what to wear because I have to put the clothes on and look in the mirror first . Spell check has been a godsend . This is starting to make sense. I did well in school except in math and art. Crazy!

I thought "imagine in your mind" was a figure of speech. I enjoy guided mediation but always thought to myself "why do they go into so much detail when you can't actually see it. They should include pictures of the images they want us to "see/imagine" Guess I'm a dumb dumb. I just didn't know! I guess or assumed that I think like everyone and everyone thinks like me. Mind blowing to discover we don't. I do have an inner monologue but NO IMAGES. Zero. People may say something like "image a box. It can get bigger or smaller, it can float, turn, come closer, or go further away" and I JUST CAN'T. There's nothing there! I know what a box looks like, and so on but there is NO image in my head. Another thing is the only time I visualize is when I dream. My dreams are in vivid colors, and details. I'm just now realizing that's probably the reason I remember them so well. To see them makes it so real but unfortunately when I'm awake I cannot conjure up anything. Lastly, I'm so jealous of everyone with a mind's eye. I feel almost cheated by nature or less evolved in some way. I'd love to see images, or watch memories. Those lucky duckers! Lol Maybe someone can explain this to me; Why is Aphantasia called a condition?

Same. Just now finding out at the age of 52. I’m actually relieved because it explains so many things for me.

I find it interesting that you don’t have an emotion attachment to you memories. I can’t picture things in my head, but I have a lot of emotional reaction to memories. Even though I couldn’t picture it I would be able to tell you that the girl had the same clothes on. So interesting how aphantasia effects is differently

I am unable to picture things in my head, I cannot imagine sound, taste or smell, I can no recall ability, if I try and think of what a dog sounds like, I just hear my own voice say woof or bark - the actual word is said in my brain.

OMG, I never knew there was a word for this and everyone has always told me that I was crazy when I would tell them I have no imagination. This is life-changing, I told my therapist that I just did not recall things that happened to me if I imagined them and that I would just forget the past as long as I could remember and she told me that it was just not interesting enough for me to remember. Thank you for giving this a name for me1

I have been going down the Aphantasia internet rabbit hole obsessively the last few days. I am so baffled like many others to find out that people can ACTUALLY VISUALIZE IMAGES!? I always thought that was a figure of speech... And when people would ask me to imagine something I would just recall what it is and know what it is but not actually see it... I thought that was what everyone did. I cannot visualize anything. Blackness. No matter how hard I try! ... Well that is unless I am dreaming. I have seen many comments about those with Aphantasia still able to dream... That is what led me to believe that I might have a Aphantasia in the first place. The realization that the vivid images I see in my dreams are what people can conjure up in their minds consciously. I am gonna need some processing time.

Yesterday I was on tiktok where a girl talked about it, I realized people actually saw things, I only think the thoughts. I didn't know it was a real picture in the mind and now I'm trying to figure this out more to understand why im like this. I loved your video it really helped

I would think there are extremes and degrees of this ability, like photographic memory being one extreme and aphantasia is another.

Over the years I've noticed while driving new sections of road in countryside. That I would listen to recordings of lectures, podcasts, or music although the images not really visible in my mind at the time. But later could be many years travel down some of those same roads and I hear that story or podcast again in my head. Sometimes it'll be so specific that I know exactly what portion of a song was playing while I drove that section of road.

Today was the first day that I realised I wasn't alone. I wasn't aware that it was a condition and it was called, aphantasia. Completely relate to this video and feel over the moon. Welcome everyone who experiences the world differently

I'm 51 and just learned about this. I never knew people could see "images" like they were looking at a photo. When I close my eyes, I see the inside of my eyelids and that's it. My parents are rapidly approaching the end of their lives and it's tearing me apart that I won't be able to remember them because I can't now, but I can still talk to them and see a picture and think of them. I always wondered why I didn't get homesick when I moved out of country to be with my husband.

Wow I just figured out a lot about myslef and why I was always confused when people said just imagine it. I just see black when I close my eyes.

This is amazing! I'm 27 years old and always wondered how the hell someone can draw a picture of something from memory. I have always been so bad at drawing because I struggled to visualise anything, and anything I visualise would always be incredibly cloudy, blurry and vague. Now I have a name for the problem. Thanks for this video

I’ve been trying to do guided meditation and just cannot- even as a child I could never “picture” or “imagine” anything in my mind! I literally thought something is clearly wrong! But this video makes me feel much better that I’m not the only one!!

I’m the same as you except I have STRONG emotions tied to memories. I can feel energy very easily and that’s what I remember, not anything visual but the feeling associated with the memory

Fascinating! This prompted a new thought in my head: if something works in a certain way, there can be a way in which it doesn't work, such as the subject of this video. The brain still has mysteries to be found.

Not sure why some people are upset about not having the ability to 'see'. Nothing's changed for you since finding out so what is there to be sorry about. We process in different ways. We don't 'see' things. Is this a case of the fear of missing out? I don't feel any different, other than I now know that other people just 'see' things differently than I can. Maybe it's a gift rather than a disability. Put a smile on your dial guys and be happy you can see at all.

I found out just last year that people see visually and was like wait what , you can. I was dumbfounded and felt stupid like I was alienated. I'm a photographer and I doodle with art . Although I can't visually see what I'm trying to make in my head I just know what it's supposed to look like and I usually aim towards that.

This video was put together very well. Thank you.

I have it! It is nice knowing I’m not alone!

2 weeks in since I worked out that this is me. I feel sad and cheated.

I have aphantasia but I can relive the emotions of past experiences. Very intensely.

I've never been able to visualize images in my mind. I remember always being confused when people said picture "x" in your mind.

Cool, but I'd point out as an Aphant myself, that the idea we generally don't have emotions tied to our memories is a bit misleading. A lot of us do find we experience less intensity on that front without the sensory element of memory, we don't tend to 'relive' things as much. But while I can't see it or for that matter taste food in my memory, i well remember bad meals!! Also breakups, especially when I was younger, were pretty rough! I may have been helped in getting over them by having less visual and sensory recall of my exes, but some of the bad ones took me months to get over so it's not really a given. I do suspect we have an edge with things like PTSD, but even there i've had some intense traumatic experiences that took me a good year or so to recover from. Aphantasia is very much a spectrum thing, for many it's not a handicap at all, just a different way of living in the world. Others have more profound memory deficits that aphantasia is just one part of, there's a high instance of SDAM, Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. But it would be important not to assume if you know someone with Aphantasia, exactly what their experience is without asking.

I’m literally just figuring out this a thing lol. I had no idea that people possessed the ability to legitimately visualize things. If I’m thinking of something, I CAN evoke an image of sorts, but it’s extremely vague and feels very far removed from myself- I guess the best way I could describe it would be that it feels like the fleeting remnants of a dream that you can just barely remember. It’s as if it’s there, but just beyond my reach. I figured that this was the case for everyone else, too. It’s strange because if I close my eyes I see nothing but black, but I can “see” glimpses of the thing in a far-off realm. Sound is very much the same way. I guess that explains my fascination and borderline obsession with making music; I’m on a constant quest to physically manifest the sounds that are ever-dancing around my head, yet ever so slightly unobtainable. It’s torturous in ways- and so frustrating that I’m not entirely capable of bringing it to fruition yet- but the journey towards being able to fully express my inner-workings (and, in essence, my soul) has also been incredibly rewarding. I’m not quite there yet, but the vision is becoming more and more clear as I continue to trudge along. My only hope in life is that I’ll live to realize the potential that I know exists within me. I doubt anyone will actually read this lol; I mainly used this comment for some introspection. However, if anyone does happen to, feel free to lemme know if you can somehow relate! Dueces ✌🏼

I have aphantasia as well. I'm 30 and found out I was different than most in that way at 29. It took me awhile of "You can't really see in your mind...?" to realize, others actually could and they weren't just being overly-literal and I was the one that was different. I've come to love having aphantasia. Sure it has it's cons but it also has it's pros and it's the only way i've ever known. I guess it would be different for someone who could visualize and then lost that ability but for me I don't ever remember being able to visualize. And my husband who can visualize tells me it isn't all it's cracked up to be, with bad memories. It's odd for me to think about dreaming now though. I dream vividly. All the senses. I've even felt physical pain in my dreams. Sound, color, emotions, all of it as vivid as waking life. But awake I have nothing. I thought for 29 years everyone else was the same. Now I realize people can have that in their minds when awake...and that's normal? It's mind blowing!

For years I’ve only been able to see pictures in my mind right before sleep, as far as my awake mind is concerned. I know I see (usually non colorful) images as I dream, but I recall dreams more in terms of emotions and somehow, there being this sixth sense/knowing of what is happening in dreams when I can’t see them.

I have this condition but only realised it was a thing a few weeks ago I thought everyone couldn't see things in their thoughts. Its blown my mind!!

I really enjoyed these random sound effects throughout the video. As someone with aphantasia I found them to be a good replacement for my lack of imagination. They helped accentuate the information as a kind of audio feedback to fill the otherwise blank and empty space that is my head and it's logical processes.

I just learned from another RU-vid video that I have Aphantasia. I am 21 years old and I am looking for resources and answers.

I was diagnosed with aphantasia and I can’t help but think what it is like to see these things

I just found this out about myself recently. No wonder counting sheep seemed like such a pointless exercise.

I've always thought that during classes when the teacher would say imagine an island and people would describe there's in such perfect deatil that they were just explaining it and that no one could acctually imagine stuff. i can't even begin to fathom acctually visualizing things! it must be nice :)

I'm confused because sometimes this happens when I close my eyes, but only sometimes. I can imagine some things for a split second, but then they get all distorted and lose shape. It only happens to me rarely though.

I read that they estimate 1% of the population has this but I think it's way more. It bugs me that they call it a condition because it's just a difference in the way our brains work. I have a very vivid imagination and a strong memory. Maybe there are degrees of severity or something because I have no problem remembering an outfit. I just don't do it as a picture in my head I do it as a knowing.

This is so, so fascinating. I can't picture things in my head. Not one detail visually, no imagination. Yet I can recall sounds perfectly. I have a constant inner monologue, I have to put a concept together with the ideas of that concept (i.e an apple. an apple is a round, red fruit, but i have no visual of an apple, only the idea of an apple). I can also recall voices, songs, words, etc. In their exact voice, like there is a recorder in my head. It seems like aphantasia comes in multiple forms, or can be paired with multiple menta processes

I am confused about whether or not I have it. I can picture something and know what it would look like, or create an image from just words (such as when I'm reading). I can picture it pretty vividly, but I don't actually see anything. At least I think I don't. I'm not really sure, but I'm just really confused about this. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or if I have aphantasia or not? Thank you so much. Edit: spelling

I saw a random RU-vid video on the subject about 6 months ago, I'm 50 and it does explain quite a lot, especially the ability to distance myself from negative memories, I still know it happened, but it's a lot easier then if i were picturing it as well, that said I that also means that I can't picture my children or set a visual goal to aim at.

This makes me feel a lot better about things. I've always had this issue too. My mechanic dad always tell me to visualize all the pieces in the engine while working but I can't do that. Reading isn't fun for me because I can never see the world the author is creating, I can understand everything described but seeing it is a no. I'm auditory though. Maybe that's why I have such a strong draw to music? I've been playing for years and I can hear all the parts of a song in my head with good clarity on a good day. Anyways, this is exciting to know that I'm not the only person.

I found out about four or five months ago I had aphantasia on a random RU-vid recommendation. I thought all my life, "picture this" was a metaphor. It took me about a month til I finally asked my boyfriend if he saw things in his head while we were vacationing. I asked him to describe how he sees things, what it's like, etc. I can't believe I've spent quite nearly 30 years as an artist and can't picture my own work before I create it. In any case, if there's someone who needs people in America (or just accept people in America online) as like a test subject if you will, I'm so very wanting to help figure out what all of this is and how it works. This absolutely fascinates me the more I learn about it and see the correlations in my own life, and to learn how it works for people that can see things in their head.

I am curious to know if anyone who has this has ever been diagnosed with ADD? I am 49 and was diagnosed with ADD over 25 years ago, and explained a lot of my childhood. Now that I know I have this, I’m not sure that I have or have ever had ADD. I did extremely well in school, and never had to study even during college studying nursing. I tended to get in trouble as a child when I was told to have quiet time. This is probably easy for someone who can daydream or visualize things, but very difficult when you can’t. I have been described sometimes as being “cold”, but I do have strong emotions about things I’m close to. I am glad I’m not the only one who thinks like this! I can also read a book and watch a movie simultaneously, and keep up with both. Trying to look for positives, since I feel like I’m really missing out!

Thanks so much for this. I also have aphantasia and this really helped

I am just a few days into knowing this term, and realizing that it is and always has been a significant aspect of my experience. I am and have been reflecting on all the phrases and advice from a lifetime that never made sense. Support tools design for students who can visualize the aids they're trying to memorize. Support tools for depression that focus on visualization techniques. Traditional advice on how to go to sleep, that focuses on visualization techniques. Feeling embarrassed to admit that no you don't remember what your child's birth look like, but you do remember it happening and the emotions of the event. I know I was scared because the doctors were worried about my wife bleeding but it don't remember what that looked like. I wish I could turn off my internal monologue and just relax visualizing a calm image, but closing my eyes leaves only black and the residuals of light effects on my rods and cones. When I close my eyes I have a brief static image of what I was last looking at that fades away. Much like the image on a CRT television. Like spots in your eyes from seeing a bright light. The image follows the direction my eyeballs point, and the duration is proportional to the intensity of the lighting and duration of exposure and is negative in lighting effect. Essentially my only perception of visualization with my eyes closed results from my physical eye not my mental eye. When I think of something, in my mind it is in the foreground, center of my attention. I don't actually see anything so I've never felt a need to close my eyes to envision a solution. Essentially problem solving by intuition and experience without rendering an image in my mind.

I always thought only a few percent actually really could see a picture or hear a song in their head. Now I finally understand that I am different than most other people. I always wondered how people could draw paintings out of their head. I thought by really practicing it a lot or maybe a unique gift. I was never able to jam with other musicians without trying what the wright tone would be. Although I can write own songs, I always need to hear the sounds first before I can compose and then I can be very creative. I only hear my innervoice sing the song, but I can not hear music at all in my mind. Colours or patterns from flags I have to learn in words. I can never remember faces of movie stars, actually I can not draw of describe my own face at all without seeing it, just recognize I did so many exercises to improve my memory, but only associations in words work. The result is that I have a innervoice whole day describing the things I see and think about, because I can not imagine sounds, pictures or smells. In dreams I sometimes can visualize vague images.

Isaq, We have our strengths. I've worked in jobs requiring face to face interviews (welfare, taxation, policing) and I can 'hear' deception. In customers/clients and with colleagues. I'm 47 and had considered myself an "auditory processor". I've since realised that Aphants are a bit more special than that. We really do have alien thought process' to "normal" people. I've had career success where face to face interviews were part of my job as I could 'hear' deception (like a texture). Since discovering Aphantasia, I realised our learning style wasn't represented during my school years and subsequently have enrolled in teaching. We represent (approximately) 2% and our learning style is absolutely not catered for. Try learning chemistry where it's symbols (pictures) added to symbols (pictures). Find your strength and use it to your advantage.

I'm your complete opposite. I have a vivid visual/ photographic memory. I can remember crazy details about some people and marked events. My wild imagination exhausts me sometimes. I remember people's faces, looks, our discussions what they like... most of the time it is not reciprocated, even embarrassing to seem like "I care a lot" where it was unintentional.

I have vivid dreams in colour; I am an empath and feel my and others' emotions; I'm a musician and voice teacher and I know what my students are doing with their tongues, throats, abdomens, and larynxes without looking at them because I "feel" what they're doing in my body; I have a gift for communicating with animals. Alas, I have no ability to visual. Total darkness. I can't navigate. I can't rotate objects in my head. I read the same books every year and I don't recognize the story. When I read, I have no images in my mind, but I respond to emotions and connect up details in the book with other details I know. I don't remember films after I see them. I have a chainsaw in my hallway (because I've never put it away, haha) that I'm always surprised to see. I can't picture loved one's faces. I realize now (after finding out 3 days ago that I have aphantasia) that I navigate the world by language-ing everything, and also by remembering sounds. So I look at a phone number and can't "see" it afterwards, but if I say it, I can play back the sounds. I'm reevaluating my whole life's experience now that I know that I have aphantasia. I wish I could be chill about it, but I feel jealous of folks who can visualize. It would help so much in life to be able to do that.

I only recently discovered I have aphantasia after a discussion with my partner then afterwards all of my family. I had no idea that people actually see things like a picture or a movie that they can control. All I see when I close my eyes and try to visualise is pure blackness but I dream vividly in full colour and I never ever forget a face even recently someone I briefly went to primary school with and had not seen for 30 years, I only saw a flash of half of their face in a crowd but knew instantly. There are advantages I think, I realised I don't really grieve over people I have lost as I don't 'see' them in my mind and if I'd gone through anything traumatic, I assume it wouldn't bother me as much as other people because I wouldn't be able to recall/re-live it at all. Not great at all to have aphantasia but a few possible benefits. I don't miss 'seeing' things because I have never been able to but it would be so cool to experience it

If asked to imagine An oak tree in a Meadow For example - In my memory I have the concepts of 'oak tree' and 'meadow' and a description of all i know of them. No picture, just the description and an 'idea/concept' (Like an 'object' in code that i can use. The objects properties are accessible but not apparent) I conceptualise the scene by thinking 'oak tree in meadow' If asked to add a boy under the tree, I would do so by adding to the description therefore, if then asked 'what colour is the boy wearing?', I couldn't just tell you from my mental image. I would have to first update my narrative to include such information. Eg. ' Boy in blue T-shirt sits under tree in Meadow This seems to put me into the aphantasic category I never knew there was an alternative. I have some trouble placing faces, and if I was asked to help a forensic artist draw someone I'd fail. I am tone deaf. Recognising a cars model is hard. I need to visit somewhere multiple times to learn directions. I would be fascinated to hear if any of these things are common to other Aphasiacs because I can see how they may be interrelated I did quite well academically and my iq is around 140 so I don't think I am negatively impacted by this condition.

Sorry for my bad English (I’m italian) I can’t visualize memory images, but this doesn’t allow me to recreate the emotional atmosphere and feelings about the episode and to identify myself in the character of my narrations... he said that he can’t do that. I don’t think afantasia and empty emotions during narrations are necessary correlated, maybe it could dipende even by characteristics of his psychological functioning (?)

Thank you so much makes people realise its out there and it's OK. Thank you everyone is different xx

I was today years old when I found out ‘minds eye’ isn’t just a figure of speech

Wow, this explains a lot for me. All I see is total darkness.

I just found out I have this today and I'm shocked people can go without knowing what they have

I was explaining what my lack of mind's eye was like to my son, I found out he has aphantasia too !

Recently found I had aphantasia. The scariest thing is now realizing how poor my communication skills are/have been. Since I can’t “picture” how the person I’m talking to is thinking/feeling. So carrying a conversation is impossible.

realized I had this today when i tryed to get into meditating couldn’t visualize anything it’s so fascinating to me that others can make clear images with there mind while us with this kinda of just have a void of darkness when we try

I’m honestly somewhat sad I can’t experience this. I never realized most people could imagine things with their mind. I’ve always thought in ideas, descriptions and feelings.

i just now realise that i cant remember my brother's face, not my mom's not my dad's, not my own not even my favorite artist

Dude walked off like a boss with the music playin

i have just discovered i have aphantasia and i am so confused about it. the agony i feel when i try to picture things is huge. i have never realized i couldn’t do it until now and my mind is blown. i can’t remember the face of my grandpa who passed away last year but if i see a picture of him i know who he is. if i try to hear the voice of someone i know in my thoughts i just can’t. same for smells or tastes. i gotta say i feel weird but i am soooo confused by how people CAN do those things lol

I have aphantasia too, one silver lining is that I have ptsd but it doesn't affect me as bad as some because I don't have visual flashbacks or other types of sensory flashbacks (no auditory, touch, smell etc. type playback), sights sounds and smells I encounter in a day can trigger emotional response but I have no instant replay so to speak.

This has been very helpful Tom. For years when I participated in personal development trainings that required visualization exercises all I saw was black, darkness. Even to this day it's the same. Does this prevent my dreams from manifesting because I can't participate in the full experience of seeing anything let along in color?

I know I USED to be able to visualize things. I have no idea when it stopped. This video describes what I experience closet than anything I have come across before. It's 85% spot on

I don't have aphantasia... but I'm interested in it. And I thought I would just note that if you have aphantasia, the present day is the best time in human history to have it... because you're not really missing out. Computers are sort of an artificial imagination now. Throughout history, if you wanted to see a dragon blowing up an army or something... you would need to use your imagination. But today you can go watch a movie or photoshop it or whatever.

I've discovered that I have aphantasia yesterday. My mind is running crazy now that I know that people can actually see images in their mind. 😮

My parents are over 80 years old. When I look at them I see them young and vibrant as they were when I was a child. I can't describe how painful this is for me to see them old and fragile side by side with the memory images. I try to focus on the thought that living long is a blessing.

Have this. When I hear about people that can rewatch movies in their head... it's so hard to comprehend. It sounds alien to me.

Just found out I have this...this is literally so weird to me that people can like actually picture things (the best I have as I can picture pictures... kinda) , I also have a severe case of misophoneia.

Personally I think it's a strength in it own way . People with this can do better emotionally in some ways . They can move on faster from painful experiences because they aren't getting mental images . They don't suffer as much if they have a terrible experience that would cause PTSD.. Also they are mainly the people in scientific fields .

So recently i‘ve read an article about aphantasia. There was a group of scientists in 2015 who figured out two main types of aphantasia. First type: complete blindness (I think it was sth as “absolute Aphantasie” -was a German article) Second type: only able to “see” sth if someone is relaxed and doesn’t force their mind to create an image (willentliche Aphantasie)

I wonder if I have this. I always thought I had some kind of photographic memory or something because I can remember faces and random things very easily (for example, recognized someone I hadn't seen in 20 years instantly, this happens often. I can remember faces and even outfits and conversations almost exactly. But then hearing this, I realize can't actually visualise anything. I just remember things instantly. They just pop into my mind. Also I try to close my eyes and all I see are colors and shapes and patterns and it confuses me. Do you know if I may have had a more visual memory before? I have gone through a lot of trauma and am currently homeless and on a few psych meds. I can visualise in dreams, like my dreams are very very vivid. But during the day it is hard to actually picture anything in my head. And when I get bad memories they feel like thoughts as opposed to images or the memories being played out in my head. They are more like ideas or thoughts. And I get tons of them all at once. My boyfriend can visualise things, even saying he saw the "reddest most clearest apple" yet I can only see black with neon lines trying to form an apple and pulsating then kinda going away. Can only keep the lines in the apple shape if I focus ver y hard but then I can only get neon lines that are sort of in a roundish shape of an apple, and they keep pusling. Wonder if I am brain damaged. Not sure what to think. Can you give any insight?

If you have aphantasia, no matter how old you are, you must try Image streaming exercises (for at least 10 minutes a day for at least 10, 20 days), it helped many people permanently fix aphantasia and it even helps people without aphantasia to improve their visualization further. If you have an eye condition like strabismus (like me) or convergence insufficiency, amblyopia and others that may also affect your aphantasia, then there's still chance, do vision therapy. Most eye doctors until recently thought that strabismus can't be fixed, but vision therapy can fix it and both image streaming and vision therapy work in the same way, by using brain's plasticity to reprogram it. I only started doing vision therapy recently, but I can say already that I have improvements with both my eyes (I used to alternate between my eyes, seeing things with one or the other, but never with both at the same time, now I can actually keep both images from both eyes for a longer time) and my mind's eye can give me somewhat better pictures (flashes of vague imagery that last longer, but still better than what I had before, which was blackness for most of the time) I could get images in my mind's eye my entire life, but they always lasted for 1 or 2 seconds at most and I couldn't manipulate them, I couldn't imagine an exact thing I want to and so on. When I finally got to imagine a flag that I wanted to imagine, it was the best feeling ever, even though it lasted for seconds, it still meant that I had some progress.

im so frustrated and angry and sad that i cant picture things in my mind. it seems like such a cool thing to do

Are you reading Q cards? I was aware I had it about 5 years ago. I tell people like this.....I have no idea what it's like to be heartbroken because the minute the other person is gone....everything about them is gone. I dont have cravings because you need to be able to imagine what food tastes and smells like. I dont remember the feeling of being younger than the 44 years of age I am right now. I dont remember my 21 year old daughter younger than she is now. In normal people. ...your memory and imagination work together to give you the sense of the past and its imagination only for the future. I can just remember in words only. There is absolutely no emotion to anything I'm not physically looking at. Its like a super power in one way like not remembering any kind of pain after the fact but it's a con when it comes to death. No matter how important someone is....when they die.....everything is gone. I cant remember what it was like to be with that person or hear their voice. Without photos....I wouldnt even know what I looked like younger than what I see in the mirror. My grandmother passed 4 years ago and I remember having to kind of pretend I was hurt over the phone when my mom told me. Now I can feel feelings when I'm directly looking at something emotional....I just dont have feeling after it's over. So I didnt feel anything when my mom said my grandmother died. I wouldve felt something when I saw her in the casket at the funeral but on my way from Houston to Texarkana TX my fuel pump went out so I missed the funeral and I never got to feel sadness for her because I didnt physically see her. That's my experience with this but I dont know any different. Oh and when I told my mom I was like this she said "That's probably why you never played with toys" I have no idea what it's like to ride an emotional rollercoaster. Seeing all the ups and downs of emotions people go through makes me never want to change anything

I have it but my experience of remembering or imagning is quite different than his. I cannot see anything in picture format. I can relive moments to a degree if I chose to think back and pull the memory. I have emotions, physical sensations, sounds, smells, and if there was something of particular visual interest than I may recall it and describe it but I don't close my eyes and see it in my minds eye. That's just black, no matter how quiet or how focused I try but I know my visual sense of memory is not to the degree of others and it's quite hard to explain how I conjur the memory of something to describe how it looks if I haven't seen it in a long time but I can for some things. But no, I can't close my eyes and see a "red star" as one of the tests goes, or see my dead grandmother. I know what she looks like, I could pick her out of a lineup, I could try and describe her features but I don't close my eyes and see anything.

i can imagine with my eyes open and closed

I had a lady friend, perhaps 15 or so years ago, who told me, while we were on the phone, that she would know me when she saw me but couldn't tell me right then what I looked like. She said she couldn't see faces in her head. I thought it was an odd thing. I accepted it as a mental quirk of some kind, but she was a great friend, good person and an intelligent human being, so I paid it no attention. I'm not even sure if she told me it had a name.

I have aphantasia and my experience is nothing like this man’s. My memory has been scored at average or low average. I can remember what people were wearing, faces, visual many details but my means for recreating and constructing relies almost exclusively on verbal and auditory cues. I use words to think and rebuild the memory even though it doesn’t have a picture to go along with it. I thought I was picturing but I was just shaping the the memory with words.

I always thought people see in their minds, and I read that just some people don’t (3%) but I asked my friends and family and anybody can actually see the things clearly in their minds, that’s crazy for me I can’t imagine can’t imagine 😜

I don't feel like this is purely aphantasia. The absence of emotions is not something I see as related. I have plenty of emotions and memories related to past experiences. I just have no visual memory associated with events.

Blew my mind learning I had this lol

I have this too! I found out about two years ago.

I found out to day i have aphantasia i feel sad finding out that have this condition i feel like I’m missing out on a big part of my life…

I'm suprised so many people have this.

The beauty of having aphantasia is that we can appreciate things as if they are new to our eyes, because usually, they really are.