this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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[–] Carrot@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago

I have this. I have zero visualization, in the little visual on the wiki I'm a 5. For the most part, I don't really notice any downsides. These are the things that I've noticed are difficult for me that I have attributed to it.

  1. I can't remember directions based on visual landmarks.
  2. A mild case of face blindness. I recognize people with distinct features pretty well, but it's common for folks to be going for a handful of trendy looks, and anyone with the same trendy look might as well be the same person to me.
  3. A pretty strong case of "out of sight, out of mind." Like, I kind of forget about people, including family and loved ones, if I haven't seen them in a while. Kind of a hard one to explain.
  4. I can't see my wife's face in my head, which makes me sad.
  5. I have to be the jerk tourist who takes pictures of all the cool stuff I see, because if I don't I won't remember them in a few months. My travel memories are mostly tied to how I felt in the area.
  6. Not sure if it's actually tied to aphantasia, but I don't dream. Like, not just visually but at all. When I sleep there is nothing. I can still tell that time has passed once I wake up, but I don't have any mental activity that I can even remotely remember happening while asleep. I'm sure there is some, it just doesn't make itself known to me.

There are a handful of perks that it comes with as well though:

  1. I can watch scary movies and then sleep immediately as no images of scary things can haunt me
  2. In that same vein, I am able to deal with gruesome stuff, and bounce back quickly since there is no "image burned into my head"
  3. Along with no dreams, I have no nightmares, so that's also a plus
  4. It appears to aid in an understanding of abstract logic; I have attributed my success in the software engineering field to it, at least partially.