Are you Aphantasic? If so, how do you feel?

Looking at photos I can recall events, functions, clothing etc but my memory without a photo prompt is very limited.My childhood recall is very restricted which I put down to the constant disruption of moves being a "forces child".
I also cannot remember book,groups,song titles and struggle with quizzes where my husband who has terrible short term memory is the one you want on your team for all forms of general knowledge .He also has vivid mixed dreams of people and events from his past where as I rarely dream past or present.

I have no sense of direction and can't remember faces. My school years are an almost complete blank and there are things my children tell me about their childhood that i can't remember at all. I thought i was the only one with such blanks in my memory so it's a relief to discover I'm not alone.

Yes..and as a teacher l can picture each class l taught ..l can see them together in class and know who was together that year. I wouldn't remember what year it was but if someone mentions a name l will see that class in my head so could name them. It's not actually a very useful skill and to be quite honest l usually keep it hidden as people seem to find it weird. Only share if the information is useful to someone.

I find your memory extraordinary. I cannot comprehend what it must be like to remember like that. Apart from my best friend at school I can remember only the names of about 6 or 7 but couldn’t tell you what they looked like. I have no idea who my teachers were or the headmaster.
Can you actually picture yourself in the classroom? It seems so strange to me.

Chewbacca

I can remember the names, faces and whereabouts in the classroom we sat, of pretty much all of my class mates from primary school Doodledog particularly the naughtiest ones yes, Stephen Scudder, I've not forgotten you!! But the things that are clearest to me are items of clothing for some reason; I can "see them" as clearly as I can see what I wore this morning. Having an excellent memory has it's advantages!

I am the same as this especially with remembering clothes and the ribbons we wore in our hair. Sometimes a good memory is a drawback as it's hard to let things go if you remember them so well.

I can remember the names, faces and whereabouts in the classroom we sat, of pretty much all of my class mates from primary school Doodledog particularly the naughtiest ones yes, Stephen Scudder, I've not forgotten you!! But the things that are clearest to me are items of clothing for some reason; I can "see them" as clearly as I can see what I wore this morning. Having an excellent memory has it's advantages!

Chewy I find your post and other similar ones very interesting. The fact that you can remember so much and I can remember so little. Can you remember people you knew when young and picture them?
I cannot remember my children being born or playing with them. I don’t remember school friends and cannot visualise anything much. I rely totally on my DH who has an excellent memory.

I can visualise pictures but not maps. If I can't sleep I go through my day in my mind and can picture myself walking in the park, making lunch and so on.

As a teacher l have found that some children need to learn how to see with their mind. So if they read a passage they have absolutely no picture in their mind of what's happening in the piece so cannot very easily answer questions on it. In my experience it is associated with dyslexia. I trained them to make a video in their mind as they read by getting them to make a video as they went along and then try rewinding to the part involved in the question. It's very difficult for them and very often they could see totally random things from the story and miss the main points. My dh has dyslexia and he pictures nothing as he reads. He thought l was making it up when l said its all very clear in my mind as l go along. My ds also has dyslexia and is very creative around house design..furniture etc but he has to physically move each thing around until he is happy with it as cannot just picture it. He sets up events as a job and that's how he works, hands on.

Yes, I think that explains it well FarNorth

Wow Pantglas that sounds useful.

My mind's eye is further back than my eyes, somewhere in my brain, so I 'see' things there while my closed eyes are only seeing black.

I’m another who can see with my minds eye and I’m also a visual learner - the old ‘Sitting with Nellie’ method of being shown first, then doing, works better for me than simply being told or reading instructions.

Once shown, never forgotten as I simply close my eyes and run through it again, like a video.

I never remember my dreams. I don't remember the names of most books I've read or films I've seen.
I can't remember the names of places I've been on holiday. I forget people's names.

I have an excellent memory; for example I can remember items of clothing I wore as a very small child and can "see" them quite clearly in my mind's eye. I can visualise routes of how to get from A to B and rarely look at a map and have never owned a sat nav. If you ask me to visualise something, such as when I'm redecorating a room, I can instantly "see" what it will look like when it's finished. And I remember, and can still "see" vivid dreams for days after! I forget very little it seems; which can be quite handy sometimes!

Sometimes a minds eye isn't welcome I see signs ...lierally.If I see a sign saying icing onroad I see just that royal icing usually inswags across the road,There a placeoutside IKEA that says assemble children here I can see wee people being put together bit by bit and as for Large Plant crossing ..its scary stuff.My husband is used to me giggling at a sign but doesn't "get" it because he just sees the words.I have very vivid dreams and remember them
Once I dreamt a whole life story and it was so real I checked old newspapers in the library to see if it was true ...I didn't find my Tall sandy haired world war 11 journalist who had the same name as my new born son .I still remember what his wifes name was and when he died in the early 60's so maybe I will come across him sometime

Dominic Lawson wrote an article about this - he has no 'mind's eye' and said he could tell you that his wife is pretty and that she has red hair, but he can't 'see' her, he know this only because he remembers that is how she looks. What a strange thing it must be, to not be able to visualise anything at all.

I have a perfectly good memory, and can remember places I've been and people I've known and loved. As for seeing a picture in my "mind's eye", when I close my eyes all I see is blackness. It has always been this way, so I don't think I'm missing anything.
I'd never connected the two, but now you mention it, my sense of direction is poor. I can get lost going to the Ladies in a restaurant or pub. If you give me a map I will invariably take the wrong g direction.
I'm also ambidextrous, do you think this is linked too?

I can generally find my way about using maps but I have to find the place on the map and then think about the best way to go that I know. I find visualisation almost impossible in guided meditation and also cannot ‘see’ what is being described.

I certainly have dreams and can see in them but the scenarios are somewhat surreal, not bearing any resemblance to anything I know or it very quickly changes from the familiar to the unfamiliar. I never could count sheep.

I’ve now found a different meditation for sleep that does not require seeing where I’m going. With imagining whilst reading a book I rarely know how the characters look and rely on the words to conjure up the person or place.

I’ve never been able to do memory maps either.

The brain is so interesting and just goes to show how different we all are.

I am the same as Doodle.
I have to use a map or satnav to get to places that I've visited many times before and can only remember past events by photos. I've never been able to visualize.
Now I know it's got a name.
DH is completely the opposite and can remember minute details. He has no trouble visualizing maps etc., so can be counted on to get me out of trouble.

To get to sleep some nights I visualise moving round the house that I lived in until the age of 11 and I can ‘see’ it all so clearly so I don’t think aphantasic but they always say as we age we remember past events more easily.

Ditto Doodle. I could have written your exact post.

I have a similar problem. Cannot visualise a route or plot my way. Can’t bring up a picture of people in my mind although recognise them when I see them.
Can’t remember my children being young other than if My mind is jogged by a photo but then I only remember the photo and nothing else around that time.
I can’t remember anything much about my teenage years. The odd memory of a long coat or pair of boots but very little. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be able to visualise things. I have always been the same.
I wouldn’t be able to pass a dementia test because I couldn’t answer the questions.

I have heard of this before and find it difficult to imagine not having a "mind's eye". I visualise things and wonder how people can read a story or listen to a description of an event without being able to see it in your mind.

What an interesting question!! I clicked because I'd never heard of it, but the bit about sense of direction and maps really spoke to me. I can learn a route from A to B and from A to C but I lack the imagery to extrapolate B to C, for example.

I've just tried the walking down the beach to the sea, and I found I was more understanding the words rather than seeing the image but with effort, I began to see some images. So I guess I'm not aphantasic but I haven't really been using that part of my brain and it needs a workout or two.

Very interesting ?

I can't 'see' pictures in my mind but I do 'see' dreams.

I once taught a student with a great photographic memory. She 'learned' spellings by closing her eyes and 'seeing' the words from her spelling list!