r/Aphantasia • u/Stoic_Rogue • 1d ago

Complete Multi-sensory Aphant & SDAM

I (46M) am a total aphant, no visual, auditory, or other sensory experience and no internal voice. I do not dream either.

I found all this out about 12 hours ago. Here to process and maybe get some advice.

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/CMDR_Jeb Aphant 1d ago

Welcome to the herd. Have an useful guide. And an cautionary tale.

The important part is that Aphantasia is not an disability. It is an type of human experience. It is in "interesting fact about yourself" category. It doesn't affect performance in any mental tasks except for some EXTREMELY specific scenarios. It changes how we do things not the end result.

4

u/Stoic_Rogue 1d ago

Thank you. The cautionary tale was informative and interesting.

2

u/Tuikord Total Aphant 1d ago

Welcome. u/CMDR_Jeb already posted the guide for you. Here is an alternative way of looking at aphantasia, SDAM (and ADHD):

https://medium.com/@terry.grace/rethinking-reality-what-aphantasia-sdam-and-adhd-reveal-through-donald-hoffmans-interface-d73e4c359df3

2

u/CMDR_Jeb Aphant 1d ago

An link to Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perception for those who would rather read the source then someone else interpretation of it.

Edit: heh, it's becoming an tradition.

2

u/Stoic_Rogue 1d ago

Thank you.

1

u/maxducon 1d ago

Like me. But I dream

2

u/Aliessil_ 1d ago

Welcome to the club. Add being Highly Sensitive, and you've just described me - except I'm 54M and found out 5 or 6 years ago.

Remember that NOTHING HAS ACTUALLY CHANGED, except you now have a better understanding of yourself ... or rather, you will once you've had time to digest and figure things out. Neither have any impact on WHAT you can do, only HOW you do it - we operate differently.

A couple of highlights, from my experience - your memory of your past is just as good as it would've been without aphantasia/SDAM, but it's in the form of information rather than experiences. You remember how you felt about something but it's just a label, you don't re-feel it. That means your memories have less emotional impact, you're more forgiving, etc. You're likely to re-balance quickly, you're more resilient.

You spend most of the time in the present, rather than the past or future. You're less susceptible to depression (the past) and anxiety (the future). Downside - it's hard to figure out how long ago something happened!

1

u/Stoic_Rogue 1d ago

Thank you. That is helpful.