It's a bit of an odd one I've been thinking a bit since my diagnosis about what precisely 'seeing patterns' means and, spurred on by a new rug, it'd been interesting to get other peoples inputs.
I'd always assumed when seeing patterns was talked about it was meant in a more abstract sense, for example noticing commonalities in datasets, spotting a few 1s in a sea of twos and threes, that sort of thing, and I've always been pretty good in this area, I've managed to build a career out of it. Recently though it's occurred to me that I also literally see patterns in things all the time. To give an example, we got a new rug recently, it's a bit busy, so if i look at it I start seeing the individual patterns in it jump out, so I might look at an area where all the colourations combine to make a circle and what I'll see then is the very visible and real outline of a circle shimmering a little over the top.
I get it with all sorts of things, when reading if I focus on my vision the gaps between words will make distinct shapes, walking on any sort of paving will usually elicit some pretty detailed effects, especially where parallel lines are involved. The brighter the light is the larger the effect I get. It's very real even though i'm fully aware that it's not what is actually there in front of me, so it's not like some psychosis or break in reality it's just like a strange overlay that most textured objects get. I've had it since i was at least 16 (so well over half my life now) and it's not changed in all that time so I don't think it's anything underlying or serious but it's not really something I remember anyone mentioning to me. Is this something anyone can relate to?
