/dr/ - Dreams

>>516
Wow, this must be incredibly rough. I wish I knew how to help. Is there some kind of sensory therapy available or are you fucked?

Besides dreaming what are some other situations where having this condition sucks? Sorry never met someone with this before.

Are you able to draw?

No, I don't mean draw like a genius professional ancient painter who was so good his work got passed down for a thousand years, I mean like, could you draw the rough shape of a sunflower without looking at a picture of it? Please, try it, tell me the result.

>>517
Nothing helps. Aphantasia affects everyone differently though. Fucking maps are gifts from God even though I have lived in the same area for ever. It's hard to remember how every single road is connected and all the landmarks. I can't see what I look like until I look at a reflection, I can't even imagine what my father looks like, and my house. The condition supposedly isn't rare, it's about a 1 in 50. I also feel like creative writing is extremely hard. I can't really create worlds inside my head to write about so I actually ended up using video game worlds or obscure movies as my creative writing. (I'm sorry for responding so late I don't usually come here but I will lurk more if you want to ask more questions.)
>>518
I can draw like a normal person except that I only see it after I start drawing. It's hard for me to draw something that isn't simplistic.

>>519
Huh, I didn't even consider something like remembering how to get somewhere would be a part of it.

Shit was school hard? You couldn't have used pneumonic devices of any kind. Did they provide you help in any way?

>>519
Can you remember your dreams most of the time? Is your memory effected by the aphantasia?

>>520
Stuff like that didn't help much. I went from an A student to a D slowly as material got harder. I loved Math and Science because they had the least amount of creativity needed. But when everyone was using techniques to remember equations I was left in the dust.
>>521
I feel like I only remember dreams where I have little visual experience but then it's not much that sticks out. Maybe I do remember most of my dreams but because most of the time they are without visuals I can forget them immediately.

>>523
:/ are you working now? what do you do if you don't mind

>>524
I'm doing grunt work for my Uncle's new business before I go into IT for the United States Navy.

I really feel you OP because I have aphantasia too. Sometimes there's this moment as I'm falling asleep where I'm dreaming but also semi-lucid and it's fucking incredible. To think that there are people who can do this during the day whenever they feel like and can control the images they're seeing is absolutely wild to me. I think people like us probably get way more excited about dreams than the average person.

>>516
Interesting… have you ever considered some kind of entheogen or hallucinogen?
There are natural and legal ones that could help with dreams such as:
>Silene Capensis
>Wilde Lettuce
>Sugandi Root
>Calea Zacatechichi
>Holy Basil
>Entada rheedii

I wish you the best of luck anon

I suppose I'm lucky because unlike some people with aphantasia I think I have pretty visual dreams. Occasionally I wake up right in the middle of a dream and know that I was experiencing some fairly vivid image, but it's pretty rare. I can't remember my dreams though. Sometimes I can convert the last few minutes into a description I tell myself but without much detail. Being unable to see images or experience other senses in my head it just becomes a jumble of almost meaningless words without connection to anything. Like eavesdropping on a stranger trying to explain a dream that's rapidly fading.

It's really painful actually. I think that the only time I ever feel OK is when I'm in the dream world, but every time I wake up I am forced forget that happiness. Leaving only a lingering sorrow I can't quite describe.

>>878
I can't speak to anyone else's experience but hallucinogens don't work for me. It seems that they don't actually cause hallucinations, but just free a person's imagination to wander. Not having an imagination only my thoughts and senses get messed up, and things get a bit wiggly and colorful but that's about it.

I've also tried Galantimine, melatonin, histamines and a few other drugs rumored to be "oneirogens". They definitely do seem to help with being in the right sleep stage to remember dreams and some maybe make them more vivid.