Narelle

I discovered the term ‘aphantasia’ last week on a watercolour Facebook page. There was a discussion on using reference photos versus using your imagination to create the image on the page. There was a comment from a lady who explained that she can’t use her imagination to create an image for a proposed artwork as she has a condition called aphantasia where she can’t see images in her mind. After some internet searches, I now know that I have aphantasia and SDAM. I am 59 years old and have always claimed that I do not have visual memories that I assumed was due to my childhood trauma and I’ve been working with various therapists over the past ten years to try to come to terms with my trauma with the sole purpose of being able to regain my visual memories - I had assumed that if I got to the point where I could cope with the bad memories then I might also regain the good ones. It was quite a blow to the heart to think that this will probably never happen.