I discovered it when I was…23? My whole life I figured people were saying “picture this…” figuratively and it didn’t even occur to me that it could be otherwise because it was self-evidently impossible to me to “see” something until I learned the word “aphantasia” and that the inability to visualize is not considered the norm/not universal.
It takes actually knowing that people actually see images to know that you cannot do that.
Counting sheep never made true sense to me. How is keeping a tally of “imaginary” sheep jumping over an “imaginary” fence supposed to help me fall asleep?
Makes sense when you realize people do it to stop their brains from randomly sending themselves other imaginary that’s going to keep them up. It’s like choosing to turn on the TV to something you could fall asleep to is my understanding.
For you and @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world , do you find it affect your memory/recall at all? Especially for reading something, do you need to read aloud? You dont need to answer by the way, I have my suspicions that someone I know might have it but they aren’t aware.
user_name@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not OP but also have aphantasia.
I discovered it when I was…23? My whole life I figured people were saying “picture this…” figuratively and it didn’t even occur to me that it could be otherwise because it was self-evidently impossible to me to “see” something until I learned the word “aphantasia” and that the inability to visualize is not considered the norm/not universal.
Sludgeyy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah took me 36 years.
It takes actually knowing that people actually see images to know that you cannot do that.
Counting sheep never made true sense to me. How is keeping a tally of “imaginary” sheep jumping over an “imaginary” fence supposed to help me fall asleep?
Makes sense when you realize people do it to stop their brains from randomly sending themselves other imaginary that’s going to keep them up. It’s like choosing to turn on the TV to something you could fall asleep to is my understanding.
user_name@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah, with that one in particular I thhough everybody was just beating a dead horse with the same joke on “counting sleep.”
Matty_r@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
For you and @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world , do you find it affect your memory/recall at all? Especially for reading something, do you need to read aloud? You dont need to answer by the way, I have my suspicions that someone I know might have it but they aren’t aware.