#since i really can't picture it. everyone has been super willing to explain whenever i go 'what.'

[crimeronan]

it's wild to me that some aphantasiacs identify so strongly with Being An Aphantasiac that they build their entire online brand around Aphantasiac Awareness and Having No Visual Mind but it's even wilder to me how some OTHER people talk about aphantasiacs. ended up on an informative yt short where the guy was like "some people can't picture their own apartment, their wardrobe.... or even their mother's face :(" and i legit got kinda offended. like. literally why do i need to be able to picture my mom's face. i can recognize her when i see her and i can tell you exactly how she feels and what she means to me and the reason i can do that is..... Because i can't picture her face. because my internal processing sounds exactly like my external storytelling, it's All Words, there's no visuals to quantify or translate. finding out that most people Don't have aphantasia has explained a lot about 1) why tricks like a "mind palace" have literally never worked for me even though i can remember ANYTHING by setting it to music, and 2) why my written visual descriptions improve when i'm drawing from setting or picrew or photo refs. other than that i'm like. i'm doing just fine dude. you are the one being extremely weird about this.....

#aphantasia has 100% shaped who i am as a writer and why i gravitate so much more toward writing than visual art #but it's not like.... a thing in and of itself for me you know #like i'm fascinated by hearing other people describe what THEIR ability to visualize is like #since i really can't picture it. everyone has been super willing to explain whenever i go 'what.' #but i'm not constantly thinking about What I Lack or anything. how am i supposed to get upset about not picturing my mom's face when i #don't need to. u know. #started thinking about this bc i'm in a car watching a lovely sunset and jotting down key words about it to remember it by #GREAT for writing refs. but most people can apparently just remember strong imagery without doing that!