I would like to talk to some people with synesthesia. I have questions about what it’s actually like to live with.
Any variety of synesthsia is welcome.
Especially interested in:
anything —> haptic/kinesthetic (whatever you call experiencing input as something with a shape and position)
QUESTIONS (as many or as few as you are comfortable with):
How strong is it overall?
Does it happen always, or is it triggered only by certain circumstances/unusually strong sensory stimulation/something else?
Is it something you can control/block out if you need to? Is it something you can concentrate on and then experience at will?
Is it totally consistent? Like, if I say the word “cat” to you in exactly the same pitch and inflection on widely separate occasions, will it always appear green? Does it vary with pitch/inflection/volume?
Does it seem “real?” If you, for instance, “see” sound, is the image actually present in your field of vision, or is it the strong visual impression of a thing, inside the mind? Like the memory of something you saw? Like you just “know” what the (for instance) sound or looks like or what the smell is shaped like? Are you aware that it isn’t “real”? (”Real” in the sense that the crossover you are experiencing is not coming from the environment, but rather your reaction to it, thus it isn’t present in the real world…I am probably wording this poorly.) Or can it seem absolutely real?
Can it be influenced by outside factors, the form partly/entirely created by association? Like, if the first time you heard a song your feet were in sand and water, would that influence subsequent experiences of how that song “felt” (or looked, or whatever)? Once an association has been formed, can it ever change?
If you are comfortable saying, do you have a mental illness characteristically associated with hallucinations? Do you have hallucinations separate from the synesthesia, and if so, do they seem/feel different, subjectively?
I realize there are a lot of variations, it’s a poorly-understood thing and unique to each person. I’m not looking to understand the “rules” as absolutes, I realize there are no such things.
I’m looking to understand how it works for different people, and to explore whether I experience a very low-grade form of it under very specific circumstances.
I would like to talk about this, either publicly or privately.
Input from people with limited or mild forms is quite welcome!
REBLOGS WELCOME, or if you know some neat folks with synesthesia who would be willing to talk about it, feel free to send them my way!
turnnoffyourmind
dededos
janainaart
ellievsbear
