Do you have synesthesia?

[sandynd]

I have the lamest kind of synesthesia. Days, weeks and months feel like they have locations in physical space to me. My mom is the only other person I personally know who has this, and she didn't know about it until I told her.

Me too!! Only with me, it's also times (makes sense since I associate the time with a clock face) but I have 'places' for years as well

 

[ZephyrHawk]

When I think of a month, I see it as part of a circle of all the months and they're always in the same spot. December is on top, June is on the bottom. Is this what you mean?

Yeah generally. Although for me they feel like they're laying down in front of me, as if they were written on the edges of a plate set before me. If I need to think about how many days there are until something happens, sometimes I'll jab my finger at where the days "are" and count.

Me too!! Only with me, it's also times (makes sense since I associate the time with a clock face) but I have 'places' for years as well

Yes, although the test for whether it's synesthesia is whether the orientation remains the same over years and years, especially when the placement is without relationship to anything logical. For instance, it makes sense to mentally order the months of the year similar to a clock face, and it would make sense to have January at the one o'clock position. For me the months run counter clockwise, with January at the 11 o'clock position. I am usually at June, though I can reorient myself if I want.

Oh, and weeks are elliptical, and I usually sit at Wednesday.

 

[kt_mom]

When I think of a month, I see it as part of a circle of all the months and they're always in the same spot. December is on top, June is on the bottom. Is this what you mean?

I see months as part of a circle but my view of it changes depending on what the current month is.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My dd's friend is VERY severe with this condition. It is hell for him to live with it.

Never knew about it until I met him.

Everything he sees has music, colors, all kinds of things with it. Literally some people's aura's can make him physical ill.

And yes Liberty Belle that would be the condition.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I said I didn't know what it was.

Now that I am reading, I lied. I know what that is only I didn't know the name of it.

I still don't have it, though.

I first heard about it in a Reader's Digest article years ago.



ETA: HOLD THE PHONE!!!!!! I see weeks and days as places; a year is a flowing circle. I had no idea this was related to numbers and letter having colors.

 

[sandynd]

To me, years go in a spiral, with year one up to year 20 being on the inner swirl, then a much larger swirl from 20 to 100. After that, it's a straight line up through thousands, with side spirals representing the years in between the century markers. Months are a long straight line down, like pearls on a string. Weeks are shorter strings, and days are the shortest string. Hours, minutes and seconds go in a tight spiral. I do tend to look at the physical locations of dates, times, years, etc. when I'm trying to remember them.

 

[mombrontrent]

I have never heard of this before. However for a long as I can remember I always saw numbers, letters, days and months as colors. To me wednesday has always been blue.

 

[kacaju]

I said other because I do not have it but my DD19 does...she always has had it forever and we only found out 2 years ago it had a name..I never knew she saw letters as colors until she found out it had a name. We then found out my Mom has it too.

 

[3smithboys]

I knew what it was from reading A Mango Shaped Space too... love Wendy Mass!

 

[Liberty Belle]

My dd's friend is VERY severe with this condition. It is hell for him to live with it.

Never knew about it until I met him.

Everything he sees has music, colors, all kinds of things with it. Literally some people's aura's can make him physical ill.

And yes Liberty Belle that would be the condition.

Not sure what you mean?

 

[EMom]

No, don't have it. But I do see odd numbers as feminine and even ones as masculine. We need a poll on that, because it seems obvious to me.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I heard of the condition and I tried to read Wendy Mass's book A Mango-shaped Space (I am a librarian and this book caught my eye). But I actually quit reading it after only a handful of pages into it - I couldn't relate on any level to what is being described. The book made no sense to me. I don't connect in any way to anything associated with synesthesia. Interesting concept, but a totally foreign one to me!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Not sure what you mean?

Your post #10. You said that you taste things and not sure if it was related. It is.

There is a whole bunch of stuff that goes with it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I voted the "have no idea" I googled it... and wow it looks complicated.

 

[ToTLaugher]

I have it, but my main experience is that pain has color and sound. Used to drive my mother crazy when she would asked what was wrong and I would say it was pink and high pitched!

I have some other symptoms, but that is the most aggressive for me.

 

[mombrontrent]

No, don't have it. But I do see odd numbers as feminine and even ones as masculine. We need a poll on that, because it seems obvious to me.

I see it the exact opposite. To me is obvious that the number 2, 4, 6 and 8 are feminine and 1,4,5,7 and 9 and masculine.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Your post #10. You said that you taste things and not sure if it was related. It is.

There is a whole bunch of stuff that goes with it.

Oh, I see.

Yes, I figured so, but it's not super strong in me. Though some colors I can taste and they make me feel slightly flushed and my face almost itchy (hard to explain).

Your poor daughter's friend - that's the worse I've ever heard of it. Mine rarely causes me any kind of discomfort, just the above (and that's not often or really bad) and sometimes I can get a slight headache.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Oh, I see.

Yes, I figured so, but it's not super strong in me. Though some colors I can taste and they make me feel slightly flushed and my face almost itchy (hard to explain).

Your poor daughter's friend - that's the worse I've ever heard of it. Mine rarely causes me any kind of discomfort, just the above (and that's not often or really bad) and sometimes I can get a slight headache.

Well that was the only person I knew that has it and I had never heard of it before. This thread is interesting in that people have milder forms of it.

Oh yea, my dd's friend has it to the extreme. It is crazy.

 

[Scurvy]

I don't really think I have it, or at least not much, but I do have some odd associations.

I have it, but my main experience is that pain has color and sound. Used to drive my mother crazy when she would asked what was wrong and I would say it was pink and high pitched!

I have some other symptoms, but that is the most aggressive for me.

I do the same thing, and I was an adult before I realized that most people don't do that! Almost all sensations make sounds, and many have colors. My husband used to look at me like I was crazy when I would describe a pain as a high pitched buzzing or a red low pitched hum. He is used to it now, though he probably still thinks I'm crazy. I have one kind of headache that looks and sounds exactly like the red light and sound on Space Mountain! I have to close my eyes on that part of the ride or I actually do end up with a headache.

I see it the exact opposite. To me is obvious that the number 2, 4, 6 and 8 are feminine and 1,4,5,7 and 9 and masculine.

I see it that way too - I read the previous post several times because I was convinced I was reading it wrong, since it seems so completely obvious to me that even numbers are feminine!

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

Yes, I do, and like others always assumed that everybody experienced the same things that I did until one day my wife (who at the time was still my girlfriend) looked at me like I was nuts when I started talking about how it was hard to sleep with the static caused by her pet rabbit's chewing on hay (the slow grinding noise came across like television static to my mind's eye while trying to sleep).

Unlike most people on this thread, I don't have the grapheme, personification or number-form types but rather have sound-color synesthesia and spatial sequence synesthesia. With the former, I see sounds as colors, which is pretty cool when listening to music in the dark (I am my own laser light show) but is otherwise pretty much inconsequential and more of a party trick than anything useful. With the latter, I see numbers and events in specific visual space, which was always very useful for taking a test as a child (I would just "go to the fact" in my mind and pluck it, leading to what my teachers called "uncanny recall") and has helped me organize thoughts throughout my life.

Apparently sysesthesia is pretty common, but for obvious reasons everybody assumes that their experience is a common reality for everybody and so they never realize that their view is unique.

ETA, I saw the book "A Mango-shaped Space" in the book store and was deeply amused to see synesthesia referred to as a "disability" and a "condition." I suppose to some it could be crippling, but to me, it is just how I've always seen the world and inconsequential. The book seemed like it was trying too hard to make it more exciting than it is, or at least than it is for me.