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Synaesthesia anyone?

Dawn

Hi all,

I just had my assessment draft report this week. The totally screwballed sensory aspects of my profile seem to be ones causing all my woes and I certainly know now that they are a huge part of what is causing all of my medical and body phobias.  I have Irlen's, alexithymia, rubbish proprioception, a pain response swinging between hyper and hypo sensitive ...the list goes on. 

In addition, my assessors think I may have an usual form of synaesthesia; you know, where one sense triggers another not normally associated with it, such that you hear colour or touch noise etc.

A small percentage of the population has it, apparently.  You don't have to be autistic to have it and not every one who is autistic does have it, but like a lot of other things, it's apparently a LOT more common in people who have some form of neurodivergence.

So, do you and what are you experiencing?

One of my recommendations was to volunteer for the research project on synaesthesia at the University of Sussex.  Link below for anyone likewise interested.  I've signed up, you but might simply want a poke around their pages on their research too.

Homepage : Synaesthesia research : University of Sussex

I've also just ordered a couple of books which look as though they might be illuminating.  Any one read them and what did you think? The blurb suggest for both that they cover all sorts of sensory difference, not just synaesthesia.

  • in reply to Duckling

    Yes, I'm going to have a good google at lunchtime

  • in reply to Blue

    Wooh! A couple of things there are fascinating...

    Dogs can "smell" certain illnesses, you know. They are experimenting to train them to detect cancer. With that I wonder whether this was once an ability all humans had, but now most have lost. Interesting.

    The glowing thing...k, this one depends on what you believe, I guess. But they say we all have auras, which change with our moods. Some claim to see them. Some claim we can train ourselves to see them. Again, I am wondering whether there was a time when we all could, but only a few now have it.

  • in reply to Blue

    Wow I think you should be out catching bad guys wearing spandex (you or them) with your abilities!  I wish I had some assistance in picking up facial expressions in other people, I am hopeless!

  • I haven't experienced this and never heard of it before

    I'm now looking it up and I'm finding it interesting to read about

    How do you find it? 

  • I can't seem to recognise facial expression appropriately however i've been able to kinda cheat by using what i think is synaesthesia to understand certain moods of other people. I kinda see people glow different colours depending on mood. Its not always accurate. I also have screwy sensors too as i can't alway recognise temperature. Even though i am an adult i still fail to put enough layers on in the winter and seemed to wear hoodie in the summer and over heat. I have weird vision anyway, you can turn the lights of and for a few short hours i can see people in the dark kinda glow in those few hours. it scares people.

    My sense of smell is apparently really good. I tend to smell things that others can't across an entire room. I have this thing where i recognise people by their smell instead of the facial features. Apparently when i was younger i kept complaining that one of my class mates started to smell weird and two hour later he had a seizure. the same things happened in high school and i accidentally outed someone with type one diabetes because she was about to go into hypoglycemia. 

  • in reply to DiffidAnt

    Both I think.  There's endless fun to be had with word or music associations with colour, for instance.

    But if, I've got one sense kicking off another in an frightening way in medical situations - and I have, that's not so much fun.  My assessors point out that synaesthetes are more at risk of PTSD.

    Pity, otherwise to me Dawn is a crimson name, like all names beginning D plus an a or o vowel are for me, and I like that.

  • I don't experience this, but I've read various accounts of it, and it sounds wonderful. Am I correct to say that, or is it undesirable in some ways?