On not having a mind’s eye:
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I know of no other way of life. I don’t know what I’m missing. When I read fantasy, I have to look at fan art to help me picture what the creatures look like.
But not all’s lost: I feel like I have exceptionally vivid *feelings*. Feelings, colors, sounds, music, words. They just feel like part of me, like I move with them. That’s why I write; take photos; why I can play nearly every musical instrument I set my mind on. I can *feel* it all.
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My greatest fear is that I may one day be the only witness to some crime. I will not be able to describe the person I saw. I can’t even describe what I look like. Or what my loved ones look like. It’s not even a latent image that can’t hold; there is absolutely no image, at all.
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I.. also don’t have an inner monologue! That seems to coincide with vivid imagery, which I don’t have.
It’s all very quiet up there, like hyper focus, doing the other things my brain can do. I don’t have a thing that’s like ‘this sucks’ or ‘oh man’
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@skinnylatte no inner monologue sounds peaceful, but I also can't imagine how I'd think without one. I suppose it's not really possible to compare, given these things don't come and go in the same person.
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Doesn’t mean I don’t have anxiety, just that I experience it differently. Instead of first person anxiety, it’s like I’m writing an essay about anxiety in my head before I feel it in my body.
All of this seems to have huge overlaps with autism.
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@keira_reckons I think like I’m writing essays. Thoughts come to me in fully formed sentences like in an academic paper, not as in verbs. That’s the best way I can describe it
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I don't quite understand. How is writing an essay in your head different from having an interior monologue?
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Duchess of Umbragereplied to Adrianna Tan last edited by
@skinnylatte Holy moly! I have the same fear. I’m totally face-blind, would 100% flunk a police lineup. I also can’t tell cars apart, so I’d be useless about the getaway vehicle. A corollary fear is that I’m accused of a crime I didn’t commit, but I fail the polygraph because my physiology is weird and I just naturally feel guilty about everything.
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Thomas Sobieck 🐘replied to Adrianna Tan last edited by
@skinnylatte new fear unlocked
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@NilaJones I don’t ’hear’ it and it’s not first person. It’s like quiet writing, not reading aloud even. There are a few steps before I can dig in and hear what that thought is saying. There is no real time feedback.
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Duchess of Umbrage last edited by
@iBlame also face blind!
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That's what I think of as my interior monologue! Are other people different?
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Adrianna Tanreplied to NilaJones last edited by [email protected]
@NilaJones @keira_reckons from what I’ve read, it seems more like direct commands. ‘This sucks’ or ‘do this’ or ‘don’t do this’
I know people who have very loud inner voices and they sometimes can’t tell they haven’t said a thing out loud
Most people are apparently surprised at the existence of the other type
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Katie Barry Ishibashireplied to Adrianna Tan last edited by
@skinnylatte I have this too! We're apparently 3% of the population, according to random content I devoured after learning this term. My 5-year-old has taken to coming up to me and letting me know at random times he can picture a red apple in his mind.
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Oh that's so interesting! Most people hear it like a voice talking to them?
I almost never get that, and when I do it's an actual memory. For example when I'm canning fruit, I hear my mom telling me, as a kid, to run a knife around the inside of the jar to let the air bubbles out
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@NilaJones @keira_reckons yes, it blows my mind but seems like that’s the rule rather than the exception!
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Veronika Cheplyginareplied to Adrianna Tan last edited by
@skinnylatte I have so many thoughts about this
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Veronika Cheplygina last edited by
@DrVeronikaCH I’d love to hear them!