I can't picture anything at all and it's a pain. I didn't think you could train yourself though! I'll keep an eye on this thread for if something helpful comes up.
I hate using the term "curing." It's more like training to visualize hh-
So, I thought it would be a good idea to ask TH this since I think I saw someone bring up that they have had luck with gaining visualization or something?
If anyone has tried "curing" aphantasia, wanna talk about it here? Like got any tips or advice for someone? Any techniques/stuff like that to try out? All I really got is image streaming.
Oh, and for those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's basically where your mind's eye is blind and you can't visualize. Here's a quick test:
If I'm right, 1 means total aphantasia. I think I'm somewhere between 1 and 2; I see uncontrollable flashes of light or light/white that moves around; I can't see a star or control these lights.
It's best you do research on this instead of relying on me, someone with a piss poor memory, to explain everything to you. But I got you the basics of what aphantasia is.
aphantasia gang.....
i have total visual aphantasia, and as far as I know there is no actual "curing" it. That said, it doesn't necessarily need to be a hindrance to your creativity or ur ability 2 enjoy nonvisual media... I can still draw and write just like anyone else. There are ways of working around it, rather than against it, depending on what you want to accomplish.
When i write (or read) it helps me a lot to imagine things from a first person perspective-- I can't visualize, but I can test motions, facial expressions, imagine sensations n emotions. I literally mean test it-- i know how my characters might sit or gesticulate bc i physically act these things out myself :'v It's useful, bc the ability to imagine myself inhabiting the bodies of all the characters in a given scene is what lets me feel my way around a written piece. I plan my scenes as physical choreography, with all its timing and tactility, rather than by trying to compose specific visuals. I can imagine a list of things I'd see if I were to see through my character's eyes. I can feel how they might interact with them and with each other.
It also helps to read widely, to absorb the way other writers use language. Examine how skilled authors represent things through other sensory information other than visuals, or with the feel of the words themselves. I don't "see" anything when I read, but I get a lot out of reading nonetheless. I also keep a diary of sensory details to pull from later, both inspired by other authors writing, and my own experiences. It comes in v handy for writing. Sit urself down in a space n write what u notice. b as flowery n poetic as u want there's no shame :'v it helps for later
My auditory imagination is quite vivid--maybe even more acute than the average persons-- I have been able to sharpen it by actively listening to a lot of music and by my self-training as a musican n vocalist. Music n voices are not hard for me to recall and adapt, and I can do other sounds with some effort. Audiation like this helps 2 add richness 2 a scene i cant visualise.
so yeah my advice is to work on ur strengths rather than things ur brain doesnt do!! :v these can fill gaps 2 the point that people reading ur stuff will have no idea u cant "see" :'v
I've been trying to find leads and such on how one could "cure" aphantasia on and off using Reddit threads/posts. I personally dislike r/Aphantasia a lot due to how...I guess defeatest people are on there ("there is NO cure for aphantasia and it's not worth trying so I'm going to downvote anything related to cures" if I remember. I remember it being common) but its the best place to find leads on ideas to try out or to question "wait would this work?"
The first one I got and want to share here is one I can't try because I don't have 3D glasses irl. But I found something in the comments of this post. It's not exactly a cure but its something I thought was worth noting. It was a tutorial thing I think to check progress? Using the Binocular Rivalry Test/Experiment. I'm still looking stuff about this up and trying to process this (I think I have trouble with stuff like this??) but I thought it might be nice to share here. Sorry if I get anything wrong.
I may put other findings here too.
I have it. I totally forgot that I even had this until I saw this thread. I used to practice "safe place" visualization every night before bed in an attempt to get better but it didn't work at all lol.
wow this is a thing?? Sometimes i worry that i cant visualize/see stuff with my imagination and mind anymore and lately ive felt it weakend and me struggling to 'see' stuff T____T
I feel when my visualization is at peak is when i feel inspired and bored or hear/read/see some interesting prompts... i like to try imagining/visualize stuff when im going to bed and often it works well but lately ive been too tired to even have time or bother imagining stuff lol
I think it's easy/helps to imagine stuff when your mind is at peace, dont think about the fact you can or is currently visualising stuff from your mind. Brush of all the thoughts that is distracting you and try to imagine... maybe put a picture, video or something infront of you that you want to imagine about or feel inspired by to get a headstart.... while i dont think i have aphantasia, this is what usually helps me^^
i think im between 3-5 according to that pic
cid
Interesting. I've never seen anyone use that to try to cure Aphantasia before. Imma go look around for stuff related to this.
So I looked it up since I wanted to see if there's anything related to that (mainly on r/Aphantasia).
If I look up ""safe place visualization" "aphantasia"," it gives me this sketchy website as the first result that was a forum or something? But nothing related to Aphan and the thing it does give you is something that requires you to sign up for an account for something. But if I looked up "safe place visualization for "aphantasia"" (which was what I first looked for) and even with the first search I mentioned, it gives me stuff about EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). To be exact, this post.
A quick summary of EMDR which I copypasted from the linked website. At least I think its a summary:
"Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories (Shapiro, 1989a, 1989b)"
This might not be too useful. But good to know about. I think.
Then, I just looked up "safe place" "aphantasia"". Got this article which brings up that Aphantasia might be a problem for making a safe place in your mind and another article which talks about Aphantasia as a whole. Within this one, I found the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) and a link where you can try it. I tried it and I was reminded that most I see were moving shadows/shapes that sometimes turned into something I could barely recognize as something completely unrelated that I could barely even see if I covered my eyes and blocked out any light and then looked into the void. Mainly Coatl from FR were seen as these weird shadow shapes since they are my current obsession (mainly the wing shape; it was like a dark gray outline would appear sometimes and make the shape of usually the female pose?)...I couldn't send in my test results since you have to put in personal info, email, other stuff but there's something new to try out.
