10 years ago, I’d have put my ability to visualise at 0 out of 10. Practice and occasional halucinogen use has got me to 2 out of 10. It causes no end of problems in day to day life, so I’m interested to hear if anyone has tips or just experiences to share so it doesn’t feel such a lonely frustrating issue.

edit informative comment from @Gwaer@lemm.ee about image streaming, I did a bit of digging on the broken links, the Dr isn’t giving the info away for free anymore without buying their (expensive) book, but I found some further info on additional techniques here, pages 2/3: https://nlpcourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Image-Streaming-Mode-of-Thinking.pdf

  • ClaireDeLuna@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 months ago

    I’m aphantasic for sure, I think I’m even entirely mind-blind so to speak, I can’t imagine smells, tastes, sounds, images, or textures.

    I can still dream and I can even recall the details vividly the morning of, but I suspect myself of being on the autism spectrum as I’ve always been super obsessed with finer details. Besides those recollections aren’t in a mental image, it’s more so concepts.

    When I think of an apple I know the physiology of an apple and thus I can discern the details onto paper (albeit crudely as I’m not artist) but I’ve always suffered with geometry since rotating a shape in my head is impossible, algebraic translations, flips, etc across the x or y axis are also super difficult for me to grasp. But I can deal with arithmetic easier.

    In terms of getting better at it? I’m not really in an environment or situation where I could safely test out hallucinogens, but with my ADHD on top of suspected autism, I really don’t think I want to see images in my head. In 2019 I had my deepest dive into depression, and while I was having a 2am panic attack (the peak of my depression I’d say) where I had endless racing thoughts just coming at me from all directions. The “noise” of my own thoughts overpowered everything. If I could imagine sound (and by extension, voices) beyond my own I might have actually gone farther than a 2 second peak of “I want to die”.

    • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      flips, etc across the x or y axis are also super difficult for me to grasp

      Very familiar with this. It doesn’t matter how many times I use a vertical / horizontal flip in programs like photoshop / after effects, I rarely pick the right one first go.

      The “noise” of my own thoughts overpowered everything. If I could imagine sound (and by extension, voices) beyond my own I might have actually gone farther than a 2 second peak of “I want to die”

      That’s the negative side (everlasting earworms are another for me, as I have eidetic memory for sounds). I use inner sound to help me sleep, as I can’t visualise numbers as suggested. Instead I try my hardest to visualise them and make a boring computer voice in my head say the number out loud. Also having Morgan Freeman as a temporary internal narrator was pretty cool while it lasted!