Help Visual imagination (quick question)

[DoNotLet2]

Hello
I am worried that I might have aphantasia so please answer my question.
You really can close your eyes and imagine images like you actually saw them? Like they were real images? When you imagine a cat you see a cat?

 

[Life_and_Death]

ive always had a good imagination though so id take my yes as just that.

 

[DoNotLet2]

Because when I close my eyes I only see my eyelids I can't imagine anything is this normal?

 

[zeroambition]

I think I have either aphantasia or just extremely bad visualisation skills. I can't even imagine a white line.

 

[Life_and_Death]

Because when I close my eyes I only see my eyelids I can't imagine anything is this normal?

idk if its normal but i do know everyone is different. i use to think the way i have memories was the way everyone saw them. in third person like they are watching their memory, i only found out this wasnt the case when someone here made a thread about it. i think this is something like that. i personally wouldnt worry too much about it as long as the problem isnt effecting your physical health. otherwise youre worrying over nothing and just making your mental health worse. just try to remember everyone is unique :)

 

[nerve]

How Vivid Is Your Mind's Eye?

Imagine a sunset. Consider carefully the mental picture that comes to your mind's eye. How vivid is that image? Take VVIQ quiz!

aphantasia.com

I have aphantasia really bad. I try not to think about it too much lol. Even my imagination is dark and empty and hollow ;; It's hard to feel like I'm not missing out. Like just another unfortunate thing about this rotting garbage brain.

 

[DoNotLet2]

I don't think it's bad to have aphantasia but idk if I have it.

 

[VIBRITANNIA]

i used to be able to see things in my mind, but i can't anymore. i don't miss it, though.

 

[Throwawaysoul]

I think I have either aphantasia or just extremely bad visualisation skills. I can't even imagine a white line.

Oh wow, I can't either. I can see things when I dream though.

 

[Giraffey]

Do any of you who are struggling to see mental images see any 'noise' when you close your eyes? Like little flashing or moving dots? If so, spend a bit of time relaxing and then focus on the dots and see if you can gradually start to influence them, changing their colour or their speed or making one area darker/brighter than another etc. It takes some practice but it might be something to play around with and explore as a step towards recovering some of your visual imagination (assuming it was acquired later in life in the absence of a physical brain injury)

 

[almost_dead]

oh wow @Throwawaysoul and @DoNotLet2 you guys are gifted .

 

[nooo2]

You can't literally see it with your eyes, it's a bit hard to explain. You see it in your minds eye, like it's somewhere different, if I close my eyelids obviously I'm going to see the back of my eyelids, which will be nothing but blackness.

I honestly wish I had aphantasia, I have visualization on an intense scale. I constantly listen to music and visualize I'm someone entirely different in a new life. I constantly replay all my terrible memories, I even sometimes recreate my memories and imagine if it had went this or that way. It's a terrible cycle that I'm trying to fix.

Anyways if I try to imagine a cat the first thing that comes to mind is a white striped cat looking at me with blue eyes, there's a wood floor underneath him, and we're in some house that I don't even recognize.

 

[Georgii]

You can't literally see it with your eyes, it's a bit hard to explain. You see it in your minds eye, like it's somewhere different, if I close my eyelids obviously I'm going to see the back of my eyelids, which will be nothing but blackness.

I honestly wish I had aphantasia, I have visualization on an intense scale. I constantly listen to music and visualize I'm someone entirely different in a new life. I constantly replay all my terrible memories, I even sometimes recreate my memories and imagine if it had went this or that way. It's a terrible cycle that I'm trying to fix.

Exactly ,couldn't have worded it better .Spend most of my life since childhood daydreaming/replaying scenarios .

 

[nitroautnz]

You can't literally see it with your eyes, it's a bit hard to explain. You see it in your minds eye, like it's somewhere different, if I close my eyelids obviously I'm going to see the back of my eyelids, which will be nothing but blackness.

I honestly wish I had aphantasia, I have visualization on an intense scale. I constantly listen to music and visualize I'm someone entirely different in a new life. I constantly replay all my terrible memories, I even sometimes recreate my memories and imagine if it had went this or that way. It's a terrible cycle that I'm trying to fix.

Anyways if I try to imagine a cat the first thing that comes to mind is a white striped cat looking at me with blue eyes, there's a wood floor underneath him, and we're in some house that I don't even recognize.

Exactly ,couldn't have worded it better .Spend most of my life since childhood daydreaming/replaying scenarios .

I still do it, not always with image during the day, but still playing it my head, that i want it or not. And yes exactly how i would explain it too.

 

[CuddleHug]

I have aphantasia, I'm pretty sure. Or if visualisation skill is a scale, I'm just at the bottom of it.

I've always hated those meditation exercises where they tell you to "close your eyes, imagine you are on a beach, the sun is warm and the sound of waves is soothing" and stuff like that. None of those things work for me. Not the image of a place, not the feeling of being there, not sounds and smells. Nothing, nada.

The best I can get is an abstract idea of like a typical beach that I know or have seen an image of somewhere. I'll know there's sand, maybe palm trees and a crystal clear ocean as far as the eyes can see. But those are just words, something I know.

Perhaps the saddest example I have is that I can't imagine my parents' faces. Not even right after meeting them and saying goodbye. I literally can't tell you what they look like. Can't describe them either, except for obvious details like my dad not having a beard.

The funny thing is that I'm actually quite creative. I draw mostly abstract things or patterns, but if I have a reference, I can draw people and places well enough. Just not imaginary places, things or people.

 

[Soul]

Imaginations aren't always visual. I don't care whether Beethoven or Guerlain could imagine a vivid cat; they imagined astonishing complex music and fragrances. I can't even imagine how they imagined them. But they did, and then they let us experience them too.

 

[nitroautnz]

Do any of you who are struggling to see mental images see any 'noise' when you close your eyes? Like little flashing or moving dots? If so, spend a bit of time relaxing and then focus on the dots and see if you can gradually start to influence them, changing their colour or their speed or making one area darker/brighter than another etc. It takes some practice but it might be something to play around with and explore as a step towards recovering some of your visual imagination (assuming it was acquired later in life in the absence of a physical brain injury)

Wow, so you can see proper imagine when you close you eyes??

 

[Giraffey]

Wow, so you can see proper imagine when you close you eyes??

Absolutely, I can visualise when I close my eyes or even with my eyes open, and induce vivid sensorial daydreams; it's actually the main way that I solve problems and process the world. Most people can to a greater or lesser extent but some people struggle with visual mentation for one reason or another.

 

[DoNotLet2]

@SlowMo thanks for advice but I really see nothing not even random dots or whatever.
@Throwawaysoul same!
@almost_dead why?
@Soul you're right I do have imagination but without pictures.

@CuddleHug same but I don't really care about it. Maybe because I only had a few of such exercises so it wasn't enough to bother me.

 

[Cherrypea]

Yes I'm the same, I only realised a few years ago that other people can actually see pictures and it's not just something you say...

 

[DoNotLet2]

Yes I'm the same, I only realised a few years ago that other people can actually see pictures and it's not just something you say...

That's the reason I made this thread xd

 

[Deleted member 1465]

I too have over active visualisation. My mind never shuts up, I've no idea what silence is, especially with tinnitus. I dream extensively and almost always in third person view, often as several people at once. I have a vivid imagination, I'm highly creative and have ocd, all of which make for a weird combination that is as much bad as it is good.
I can find it difficult to relate to others way of seeing things because I rarely see things from a single perspective.
Of course, we are all disconnected from each other, so it's natural to think that everyone else sees things the way you do, at least until you start swapping experiences.
Its really amazing how people visualise and understand some things so differently and yet other experiences seem almost universal.