Lou Sanfillipo

When I was on a board gaming weekend with some dear friends, myself and another women were sharing about how we just didn't 'get' why people were so into D&D.  "I mean it's ok, but people are just so into it and they can go on and on about what happened to the elf during the battle.  Everyone seems to enjoy the storytelling so much more than me."  She asked me if I saw it... did I see the story happen when people talked about it.  She is aphantasic and that's when I discovered that I am too.  We share a lot of other great brain quirks too, like the ability to rehearse kinesthetic tasks in our brains and actually get better at doing the thing with our bodies from that mental exercise.  Crazy!

https://youtu.be/vbVlte9hSrE

Wow, it must be really tough to go through such a dramatic change.  You're absolutely right though that learning about aphantasia leads to a lot of the aha moments that make so much of it connect. I highly recommend this recently posted video/webinar.  I really appreciated that he talked about overlapping symptoms/experiences, including what they call autobiographical amnesia.  My jaw practically dropped because I didn't know before then that my horrible memory was related.  The joke in my marriage is when my husband says "don't you remember...", I respond "that sounds like a great story, you should tell it to me."  It really is kind of crazy.  In another article I read that it can make us more resilient to trauma and loss though, so sometimes it's a plus.

Check out this video, https://youtu.be/vbVlte9hSrE.  It's posted here in the aphantasia network and I watched it just the other day.  Apparently about 70% of us still have visual dreams (if I'm remembering correctly).  He also goes into some good data about acquired vs lifelong aphantasia. Enjoy!

Some of the webinars that are linked to on this site are absolutely great.  They give a lot of thoughtful feedback about overlapping symptoms and experiences.  Because the aphantasic experiences seems so varied, I would recommend starting from a place of self-reflection.  It sounds like he's really successful, so getting him to tune in to what specifically helps him have success is a great place to start.  That includes success with which subjects and assignment types, but also in environmental components that help him attend in class and how he can set up his homework space to help him focus.  Once he really has an idea of what works for him, then self-advocacy comes much easier.  It's a fantastic skill even to tell a teacher after class, "hey, I'm having a hard time with this particular unit.  I think it might be my aphantasia.  It's a newer kind of neurodivergence, so there's not a ton of guidance on what helps yet, but if you would be game to work through this unit with me, I'd really appreciate it."  We have to remember that young folks (and plenty of adults too) may not think so much about how brains are different.  It can really empower them to know that the educational system is set up primarily for 1 type of brain and it's ok to ask for something different.

That's wild!  Thanks for sharing.  If you're really considering trying it out, just remember to do a lot of research on ayahuasca.  I've heard it's a harrowing experience both mentally and physically, so no small undertaking.