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I have both. My mind's eye is blind and my mind's ear is deaf. The inside of my head is a pretty empty place where I inhabit it, cue the jokes. Thoughts just

I have both. My mind's eye is blind and my mind's ear is deaf. The inside of my head is a pretty empty place where I inhabit it, cue the jokes. Thoughts just pop into my head from some other part of my brain. When I'm thinking about how to word something, I feel my mouth start to form the words, though my mouth doesn't move. Maybe I'm sub-vocalizing, I don't know. When I'm thinking hard about something, I just sort of "go away" for a bit and come back, hopefully with an answer. I thought this was normal for everyone, until I read about aphantasia a year or two ago. I suspect this is why sounds or pictures are so distracting to me. The thing that everyone does where they play a tv show in the background doesn't work for me. If I hear it, I have to concentrate on it. It takes a mental effort to ignore it. So when I'm at home I keep everything off unless I'm ready to watch or listen to it.

klondike_klive 7y ago
I realised this about myself only in the last few years. If there's a screen on in the room I will be riveted on it to the exclusion of anything else.
qznc 7y ago
The positive aspect is that you should be immune to Kopfkino: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kopfkino https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kopfkino > Kopfkino happens when you involuntarily use your imagination to think of troubling or disgusting things in graphic detail. > From the german words kopf, head and kino, cinema. > After i heard 'granny pussy' i had the most disgusting kopfkino. (Just realized, I need to remember this one as a nice german word with no english equivalent)
- godshatter 7y ago
  That is nice. I can't conjure an image like that at all. Also, seeing a graphic image doesn't stick with me very long since I don't keep seeing it like a lot of people apparently do. People with aphantasia would probably do better moderating images than those without. Still not great, though, because while I can't see the image again I would still remember the circumstances involved.
agarden 7y ago
Interesting. I have very little mental visualization and find ignoring TVs to be extremely difficult. I had thought it was because I grew up in a house that did not have a TV on very often.
- godshatter 7y ago
  It's very possible that it's not related. I frequent r/aphantasia on reddit and we're always asking the community if they have certain quirks to see if it's related and the results always end up mixed.

klondike_klive 7y ago

I realised this about myself only in the last few years. If there's a screen on in the room I will be riveted on it to the exclusion of anything else.

qznc 7y ago

The positive aspect is that you should be immune to Kopfkino: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kopfkino https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kopfkino > Kopfkino happens when you involuntarily use your imagination to think of troubling or disgusting things in graphic detail. > From the german words kopf, head and kino, cinema. > After i heard 'granny pussy' i had the most disgusting kopfkino. (Just realized, I need to remember this one as a nice german word with no english equivalent)

godshatter 7y ago
That is nice. I can't conjure an image like that at all. Also, seeing a graphic image doesn't stick with me very long since I don't keep seeing it like a lot of people apparently do. People with aphantasia would probably do better moderating images than those without. Still not great, though, because while I can't see the image again I would still remember the circumstances involved.

agarden 7y ago

Interesting. I have very little mental visualization and find ignoring TVs to be extremely difficult. I had thought it was because I grew up in a house that did not have a TV on very often.

godshatter 7y ago
It's very possible that it's not related. I frequent r/aphantasia on reddit and we're always asking the community if they have certain quirks to see if it's related and the results always end up mixed.