I just learned that I have aphentasia
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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5, I think. I get this…flash almost of my brain going “apple”. I know what an apple should look like based on memories of an apple but I can’t picture it in my head. It’s weird. I can do the same with movies. I can replay them mentally, but I’m not actually watching them in my head. It’s like recalling a memory where I just know what’s happening. I don’t even know anymore.
These pictures are confusing me. Like I can imagine an apple in my head but it’s not like an actual visual thing.
Like I’m thinking of the Golden Gate Bridge in my head right now and I can kind of picture the scene but it’s not like I can actually scan it for details or anything.
I don’t know, I feel like most of the differences people report are just in the words they use to describe what they are seeing. I feel like I could argue that I am seeing all five of these, even #5 because it’s not like my eyes are actually seeing anything.
Some people don’t hear the voice in their head either. No inner dialog.
I actually have researched this a ton, but I have never been able to figure this out: I cannot TELL what I picture. I literally have no idea if I’m picturing something or if I’m just thinking about something. It’s odd.
5 figured it out in my 30’s. Thought everyone was being metaphorical when they said imagine or picture something in your head. To me it’s just blank and the concept of an apple.
I just can’t picture in my head what life without aphantasia would be like.
Is it just me or are the examples for #2 & #3 switched?
Wait a fucking second here…people can see pictures in their mind when they close their eyes?
Whenever I heard someone say “imagine it” or “picture it” I just assumed everyone did what I did and thought about the object or scene or whatever.
I swooped from 1 to 5 after a head injury.
All I see is the back of my eyelids. What the hell?
I’m #1 I see a red apple vividly in my mind. I can see everything in my memory, houses I’ve lived in, places I’ve been. I see it all in detail
I don’t have it, i can imagine wondrous images and complex patterns… But my dumbass hands can never translate it to pen and paper.
I see black, and I have no inner monologue. rip.
I can literally generate an image in my brain and even spin it around and move it like it’s some blender project
Wait… wtf… I thought we all see darkness.
Well this does suck :/
I love doing wood working, and when I design a new piece, once I have the general sketch down, I will model that piece in my mind, putting it together, step by step. Just about every project at least once I save myself a bunch of trouble because in my mind I discover an error in how something is built and I can redesign it before I ever start. Rinse and repeat with the new design until I get one that works.
I don’t really trust any mainstream conversation like this when people self-diagnosis their mental status, especially when the person making the meme can’t see that Apple #3 is more detailed and in 3d than the flat red image in #2 yet they’re trying to convince me #2 sees more in their minds eye.
just seems hilarious
Wait … Not everyone sees black when they close their eyes?! I did some reading about this after I saw your post and apparently this is the reason why I am really bad at recalling people’s facial features.
It’s conditional for me. My medications make me not see anything, but i used to be able to see vivid, colorful images with ease
This confuses me. Is my vision meant to just produce the image on my eyes as soon as I close my eyes? If I think of the object I can “see” it in my mind with all the details. But it’s not actually an image, it’s a thought I can imagine in detail. I can’t physically see it.
I might be overthinking this.
Welcome to my team, I also don’t have internal monologue so my head is entirely empty. Also, the only way to prove you have it is to get a MRI scan, basically there’s a “hole” in your brain where your imagination is supposed to be, but because MRIs are expensive people take forms and self diagnose. Aphantasia actually very negatively affects memory, it leads to dementia which I basically currently have.
I had a TBI and afterwards I felt like a part of myself had died, I couldn’t describe it besides missing the meta level of my character. It turned out I had aphantasia. I had lost my inner voice and inner imagination for months. It felt like a part of me had died, bit I just didn’t know which one. If you don’t know anything else I guess it’s fine. But if you do aphantasia is hell
Am i supposed to like, actually SEE an apple form? Or is it like, just in my brain.
Yes, unfortunately I see nothing as well. Exactly why I can’t draw.
How about seeing number 1 with your eyes open? Is that a thing? Cause I can imagine pretty much anything even with my eyes open
This is tripping me the hell out. I have like a super active imagination and can have extremely vivid dreams and daydreams, but I can’t see anything when I close my eyes???
At a glance i thought Aphantasia was a new type of apple just named
Usually 2-3 but it varies. Sometimes it’s a 1, my dreams and daydreams are a 1.
I also have a constant internal monologue that’s doing multiple things at once. Sometimes in my brain it’s like.. one part is acting out scenarios in one part of my brain with pretty vivid imagery, while another part of my brain is dealing with my mental to-do list, while another part is singing Kumbaya, and another part is trying to remember if I ate today or not. All at the same time & it’s all “out loud”. Like multiple voices and images overlapping each other.
I can read a book and have a pretty good running video of what’s going on, but I’m also hearing the words in my head as I’m reading them.
I am sceptical.
I thought of an apple. I imagined an apple, red, slightly orangey, with green patches showing up. A curled yellowing leaf attached to a dark brown twig.
I imagined a mountain of apples like this, with baobab tree sticking out of it. Cats sitting on the tree’s branches. Don’t ask why, just came up naturally.
And while I thought about all that, I am confident I actually saw nothing. Covered my eyes fully, but there was only pitch black.
Yet it seemed as if it was all there. Visually speaking, even though I for sure haven’t seen anything.
So do I have it or not? If I think of a cartoonish apple and successfully imagine it, does it mean it’s partial? Or is it actually more of a measurement of people’s ability to describe imagined things?
How would dreams for people with aphantasia work? Do they not see anything during dreams?
Moreover, isn’t that the case for everyone anyway? After all, our eyes are closed.
I am a bit confused, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Wait a minute… are you telling me people can actually “see” stuff when they close their eyes? As in not dark, grey, whatever, they SEE stuff in front of their closed eyes if they want to?
I close my eyes and I see the MacBook logo.
What does that mean?
This is weird, I can see #1 fairly easily, in fact I can image the whole image in my mind as a whole. I know I do this better than others but I never thought to think that there was such a diverse range of quality.
2025 graphics vs 1980
As a chef with ADHD, I can taste/smell/feel the texture of different types of apples in my head.
Okay, question time… When y’all say “oh it’s just black when I close my eyes” well yes, but I can bring up a 3D model of things and places… Like it’s black UNTIL I picture something… Like can you guys just NOT bring up images? At all? What are your dreams like?