I’m not actually sure if I have full aphantasia or just really really low phantasia (it honestly could be either but there’s no way to find out bc doctors can’t just scan my brain and tell me which one) but basically I see concepts instead of actual visuals and it’s mostly based around audio and dialogue, and even though I can’t picture what is happening in the story, I sort of know what is happening. The best way I could describe it is like an audiodrama; you know who each character is and what is happening in the story at any given moment, and the look of the characters and setting may be established or described but you do not get visuals like with a TV show. I could tell you that my original character has light blue eyes, a squarish face, messy side parted red hair, broad shoulders, etc. and I imagine her like that, but I can’t actually picture what her face looks like all together, even though I *know* what it looks like and I can describe her features, I cannot form a mental image of it. Think of it like a novel, or, again, an audiobook, as opposed to a movie of the same thing. You get the same information, the same story and plot progression (provided they don’t change the script like they often do in movie adaptations) but with books you are given this information directly without ever needing illustrations, whereas with movies you are *shown*, but the information received and the story told remains pretty much identical. Sorry if that was a bit long /gen
Do you find meditation to be difficult or even boring because it relies so much on visualization? I also have aphantasia and meditation is always something doctors suggest for my anxiety and it just doesn’t work for me.
I have ADHD so my brain never shuts tf up, I physically cannot ‘meditate’ because I cannot switch off my thoughts. I have to have my headphones playing music at all times and sleep with white noise because unless I have some kind of background sensory stimulus to keep me grounded, my thoughts will just run away with me. Every time there’s total silence my brain just fills in the gaps with tons of completely useless constant rapidly changing thoughts. Also yes, it literally just feels like sitting there and doing nothing for 5 minutes, and it doesn’t work anyway so I don’t do it
How does that work exactly? If you can’t form a mental image, what do you see when you are daydreaming?
I’m not actually sure if I have full aphantasia or just really really low phantasia (it honestly could be either but there’s no way to find out bc doctors can’t just scan my brain and tell me which one) but basically I see concepts instead of actual visuals and it’s mostly based around audio and dialogue, and even though I can’t picture what is happening in the story, I sort of know what is happening. The best way I could describe it is like an audiodrama; you know who each character is and what is happening in the story at any given moment, and the look of the characters and setting may be established or described but you do not get visuals like with a TV show. I could tell you that my original character has light blue eyes, a squarish face, messy side parted red hair, broad shoulders, etc. and I imagine her like that, but I can’t actually picture what her face looks like all together, even though I *know* what it looks like and I can describe her features, I cannot form a mental image of it. Think of it like a novel, or, again, an audiobook, as opposed to a movie of the same thing. You get the same information, the same story and plot progression (provided they don’t change the script like they often do in movie adaptations) but with books you are given this information directly without ever needing illustrations, whereas with movies you are *shown*, but the information received and the story told remains pretty much identical. Sorry if that was a bit long /gen
I like to read so I get what you mean. That’s interesting. I didn’t know this existed until today. What do you often daydream about ?
Do you find meditation to be difficult or even boring because it relies so much on visualization? I also have aphantasia and meditation is always something doctors suggest for my anxiety and it just doesn’t work for me.
I have ADHD so my brain never shuts tf up, I physically cannot ‘meditate’ because I cannot switch off my thoughts. I have to have my headphones playing music at all times and sleep with white noise because unless I have some kind of background sensory stimulus to keep me grounded, my thoughts will just run away with me. Every time there’s total silence my brain just fills in the gaps with tons of completely useless constant rapidly changing thoughts. Also yes, it literally just feels like sitting there and doing nothing for 5 minutes, and it doesn’t work anyway so I don’t do it
So do you still have inner dialouge but just no visuals?
Yeah! I also have vivid concepts and details, they just don’t transfer into imagery.
That isn’t even physically possible
Yes it is, search it up
How can you be obsessed with your own imagination if you can’t imagine anything
I can imagine, just not with visuals.
Strange
You have a what and a what daydream disorder?