Just curious to know as I have Synaesthesia but I'm the only person in the family with it and I don't know anyone else with it. It's a strange thing and it can be annoying like when watching stuff because different things block the screen. It's like for me days have feelings, Tuesdays are cool and dull but yesterday was warm and brightly coloured which is nice but causes sensory overload.
Be interesting to see who else has this.
I do. People have colours, it took me a while to realise nobody else sees this. I guess it's what people call vibes? E.g a person who gives bad vibes will probably have dark colours, mostly purple. My massage therapist has bright orange hands, like the Ready Brek man? I often get sensory overload when I am in places with a lot of people because of all the colours. I am a member of a choir and singing has colour too so when we are all singing together it's a massive sensory hit, sound and sight.
I havent heard of Synaethesia before but I just googled it and I can quite relate to it a little bit.
I dont know if this is anything similar but when I was a kid I felt very strongly that numbers had personalities. Certain numbers had really nice personalities and I would talk to them and they would become my friends
Also colours can cheer me up or become a sensory overload depending on my mood, for instance some days I like to wear really bright colours, even clashing ones and it makes me feel happy and colourful, but other days bright or clashing colours really destress me and I cant go out in them.
I also struggle with certain colours when playing sports. I cannot wear really brightly coloured football boots because then when I look down to kick the ball my eyes blur and I cant focus on the goal properly
To be honest I had no idea it was more common in people with autism. Really interesting to know.
I totally understand what you mean about some being unpleasant. I hate the unpleasant bits whereas some parts of it can be so nice like rosy smells.
Yes indeed. I do. It's one of those rare sensory things that you don't have to be autistic to have (abt 2-3% of the population have it), but it is way more common in autistic people than others.
I have a strong colour/word thing, some of the spatial things to and some unusual touch, feel, smell and other physical reactions to certain objects and words. Some of it is pleasant, some not so much...
The Curious World of Synaesthesia | Jamie Ward | TEDxCambridgeUniversity - YouTube
Sometimes the colours are stronger, I think it depends on my mood. You are very welcome. Patrick Samuel also has an art/ music website and an Instagram page.
I have it a with numbers/letters and colours. I think this is the most common type. It's doesn't distract me, but it's always there.
For me, Tuesday is mainly yellow because the letters T and the S dominate the word and they are (different) shades of yellow.
Monday is a dark red because M is dark red, and N is brown.
Synaesthesia is much more common in the autistic population, it's interesting.
Thats a thought, maybe its the same as your shapes thing -Saturday is more quarantined by the Friday bit of the weekend and a lie in, so it’s clear, but Sunday’s already getting an infusion of backwards-leaking colour from the first week day ahead.
Yes maybe, cool idea.
I find it really how we all experience this differently, a bit like autism I suppose it is. All the same but with differences. I find it interesting how you see the days and weekends.
I hadn't heard of him no but thanks for sharing about him with me. I appreciate it and will start reading now.
I find the same as you the more anxious I am the less I'm able to tolerate around me whether it's colours sounds or people. Anxiety is more debilitating than a lot of people think. It sounds as if you get anxiety bad at times. I've only had it bad where it caused me like that once that I can think of. Mostly it just causes upset and distress. Hopefully you can continue and not end up in that dark place again.
Is that an autistic thing I wonder? The vivid remembering of specific revelatory thoughts (even low key ones) and where/when they were had even if there was nothing outwardly memorable about the moment. In other words, its the thought itself that takes the indelibe snapshot in time, not a thing happening from outside making for a memorable moment. Though everyone gets the latter of course.
They don’t affect my mood as such. I think ots maybe more that the mean average prevailing feeling of those days just suggested its iwn intuitive colour in time. Or in Saturdays case, clear transparency. Thats a thought, maybe its the same as your shapes thing -Saturday is more quarantined by the Friday bit of the weekend and a lie in, so it’s clear, but Sunday’s already getting an infusion of backwards-leaking colour from the first week day ahead. Which should in theory make it more of a grey than the colour if anaemic piss. Go figure.
But i remember these colour associations sort of bedding in gradually across childhood. I can certainly remember a specifically moment from the late 80s when i realised (internally, unspoken) that Friday had become, or always had been, orange. The others may have taken on their hues by then too, not sure.
My days have colours too, they are also different shapes. I would say this is a form of synaesthesia because it is a mix of sensory experiences.
‘Mondays are black, Tuesdays are a translucent white, Wednesdays sort of reddish (maybe burgundy?), Thursday a dark warm green, and Friday a light orange. Saturday is sort of clear, and Sunday is a weak yellow. ‘
This is really cool, does the colour of the day affect your mood/routine?
It is a really interesting to share our internal processing/worlds with other autistic people .
For me, Mondays are blue (I don’t whether this is associated with the phrase Blue Monday). Then, Tuesdays are orange, Wednesdays are a dark purple, Thursdays are a weak green and Fridays are black. (Again I am not sure if this is associated with the Black Friday event ). Saturday is a strong yellow and Sunday orange.
Yes I have some form of synaesthesia, you say days have feelings which is really interesting but probably intense.
For me, each day of the week is a different colour and all the weekdays have the same shape but Saturday and Sunday are both circles. I think of this as a way of representing the lack of structure at the weekend.
It's a strange thing and it can be annoying like when watching stuff because different things block the screen
I have never heard of this before, your synaesthesia must be really strong.
Synaesthesia is common in autistic people as just another form of neurodivergence. Some people may not even think of synaesthesia as separate to autistic experience- these experiences may just merge and be acknowledged as part of your individual sensory profile.
Have you heard of this autistic artist Patrick Samuel? He uses his synaesthesia to enhance his artwork. This article may be of interest:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/stories/stories-from-the-spectrum-patrick-samuel
Yes, definitely to the heightened anxiety waking it worse. Or rather, the more distressed I am, the lower the dial goes on tolerance for any sensory stimuli. Ive at least three times in the last five years gone through a period of weeks where - overwhelmed by events or a dark epiphany- I needed the quietest of softly lit rooms to sit and ruminate for hours every day - just endlessly trying to solve the unsolvable and with anxiety and despair raging at all times. Food was especially overwhelming - amything (while i was like that) more strongly flavoured than a rich tea biscuit or plain cracker or lightly buttered toast would be to much to bear. Wish i could lose weight that easily now! Though I certainly don’t want to revisit the sort of total mental and emotional crash that brings that about. Not that I have much of a choice when I do.
So interesting to hear your colours of the week. I think it's lucky you don't taste, hear, feel and smell those things it can be unpleasant lol.
Oh also with finding things overpowering have you noticed it's worse when you're anxious? I have. It's doubly horrible when I feel anxiety kicking in.
The feeling sick with the flowers I sort of get that but more with animals when they are first born and usually look all saggy and furless lol really makes me heave.
I dont believe I have synaesthesia as such (I dont hear coulours or taste shapes or smell equations or whatever) but that days of the week thing strikes a chord. For sone reason each has always had a colour ‘aura’ associated with it in my head only - not perceived as a filter over my eyes or anything. Mondays are black, Tuesdays are a translucent white, Wednesdays sort of reddish (maybe burgundy?), Thursday a dark warm green, and Friday a light orange. Saturday is sort of clear, and Sunday is a weak yellow.
One thing i have that’s maybe adjacent is that certain sights can me very unpleasantly. For instance, while real life rainbows are beautiful and subtly shaded, any manmade attempt to replicate them always looks horrific- the worst variant being childrens’ felt top drawings - those tightly packed bars of clashing (rather than subtly gradating) colours are nauseating to me. And there was one in every window during lockdown! All in a good cause (as it id with LGBT symbolism too) but I find the feignbows themselves kind of grotesque.
another one: actual nature this time. Daffodils make me feel a bit sick. Something about them being the shock troops of Spring trying to get started ‘prematurely’. That horrible clash of dark green stem and sickly yellow head, extruded vulgarly out into a some sort of physically embodied scream - the birth pains of the season as frozen disquieting avatars of the unrelenting insistence of more new things. Inevitable, and by late spring, easier to look at. But those first garish infiltrators… shudder.
apart from that, I just have the fairly standard autistic thing of finding many tastes and smells and noises overpowering at a lower threshold than most.
Hello.
Thanks for sharing this with me. I'm not on Twitter but I might join now. 
This chap on Twitter is one. Artist/Poet twitter.com/soundcube
