I'm sure I'm not the only one following because I have aphantasia, so it's a tad ironic that your newsletter asks us to "picture this..." at one point!
As for the cautionary tale, anecdotally I know lots of people with aphantasia and significant struggles with anxiety, PTSD, cravings etc, and have experienced some of these myself without any ability to visualise. I'm curious to know more about the research that established "associations between vivid mental imagery and various psychological and neurological disorders." I've had a psychiatrist write in a report that I don't experience flashbacks, but I would say that I do, they just don't have a visual component for me. Is aphantasia a protective factor, or some of the measures and assessments of mental distress not a good fit for capturing our experience?
I'm sure I'm not the only one following because I have aphantasia, so it's a tad ironic that your newsletter asks us to "picture this..." at one point!
As for the cautionary tale, anecdotally I know lots of people with aphantasia and significant struggles with anxiety, PTSD, cravings etc, and have experienced some of these myself without any ability to visualise. I'm curious to know more about the research that established "associations between vivid mental imagery and various psychological and neurological disorders." I've had a psychiatrist write in a report that I don't experience flashbacks, but I would say that I do, they just don't have a visual component for me. Is aphantasia a protective factor, or some of the measures and assessments of mental distress not a good fit for capturing our experience?