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How do you "see" words and numbers?

How do you "see" words and numbers?2011-01-21T04:23:01+00:00

The Forums Forums What is it? Odd Symptoms/Behaviours/Signs How do you "see" words and numbers?

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  • #99534

    Anonymous
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    Post count: 14413

    I wanted to share a different concept that might be related. I often “see” non-physical concepts as having physical locations. For instance, I perceive that a particular internet site that I routinely visit is far to the left of all the others, while others are far to the right. This has nothing to do with their content, but I have them arranged in my mind like books on a shelf. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the amount of time I spend on them or the order in which I might visit them on a particular day. When I think about visiting a site, my mind has me searching to the left of the computer screen instead of the browser bar where all of the site addresses reside. It can certainly slow me down if I’m not sufficiently focused.

    The same goes for other routine tasks – I lose track of where things are (buttons on a menu, for instance) because I’ve assigned them different locations in my mind’s bookshelf.

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    #99535

    Geoduck
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    Post count: 303

    Okay, so my friend just put this Synesthesia wikipedia link up on fb, so I searched these here forums to see if there was a link. Seems to me children who spend much of their time daydreaming would grow up assigning colors, sounds and all sorts of personalities to things.

    I do hear light, though. Just thought it was my brain assigning sounds to things. I guess it is, but maybe that’s not normal???

    Anyway, so what is the rate of co-morbidity with ADHD, or is this just a symptom of ADHD, and not synesthesia at all? Anyone know???

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    #99536

    kc5jck
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    #99537

    Anonymous
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    Post count: 14413

    I would also be interested in knowing the co-morbidity of synesthesia with ADHD! I remember getting into arguments as a child over the colors of letters and numbers, and judging new classmates if their names were sharp or rough. No one believed me that the number 5 is orange. Of course it’s orange. How can you not see that it’s orange?

    It seems like many of us on here have experienced synesthesia, and when I looked it up again, it said it’s thought to result from a ‘cross-wiring’ of synapses from one sense to another. This seems like it could somehow correlate with us ADHD’ers who can go into a sensory overload frenzy when presented with a large bustling crowd during the holidays or other situations like that. If we are experiencing each sensory input twice (visual and tactile, for example) then no wonder we are overloaded!

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    #99538

    Tiddler
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    Post count: 802

    I’ve had a look in the uni library for ADHD and synethesia links but nothing came up at all, which is surprising as there are reams of studies on both of them but nothing looking at whether there are links, so I’m guessing it’s a coincidence.

    I don’t have it but I have a friend who does and she experiences colours. She also has dyslexia – again I couldn’t find research on that either!

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    #99539

    Tiddler
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    Post count: 802

    Scrap what I said. There is one study on dyslexia and synesthesia but it won’t let me look at it!

    Synesthesia and dyslexia: Implications for increased understanding.

    Authors:

    Stephan, Barbara Beard, Inst Transpersonal Psychology, US

    Source:

    Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol 65(11-B), 2005. pp. 6059.

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    #99540

    nellie
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    Post count: 596

    Tiddler,

    I started reading Temple Grandi’s book after you mentioned her.

    She talks about how those with Autism use physical images to represent concepts.

    Makes me wonder about the connections between Autism, ADHD and Synesthesia ( which I experience) .

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    #122113

    blackdog
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    Post count: 906

    Oh, I would say there is definitely a connection. I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the possibility that ADHD and Autism are connected. I never connected the dots with synesthesia until now though. Makes perfect sense.

    What doesn’t make perfect sense is the descriptions I read here of how calendars look and numbers that make turns and switchbacks and go on to infinity. That is really bizarre to me. But then, I don’t have synesthesia.

    What I do have is a lot of Autistic tendencies. And I see images vividly in my head when I read and hear all the different voices and everything. Each member of the forum has their own distinct voice in my head. And I “see”all of you too. But I never thought that was an unusual thing. I just thought everybody did it.

    I also have left-right confusion, in both senses of the term. I have to think about which way is left or right and really concentrate when I am giving directions. And I also do some things with my right hand and some things with my left. I was born right handed and it is my dominant hand, but I become left handed for certain things, like playing musical instruments. And I can write and draw with my left hand too, albeit slowly.

    I probably partly caused this myself. When I was a kid my brother had a friend who had lost the fingers on his right hand in an accident and had to learn how to do everything with his left. So I decided that I should learn to use my left hand just in case I ever needed to. I also used to walk around blindfolded so I could learn what it was like to be blind, just in case.

    I was a strange child.

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    #122121

    Patte Rosebank
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    Post count: 1517

    @Blackdog, I think we’re practically twins.

    (I wonder if the world is ready for that.)

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    #122122

    wanderquest
    Member
    Post count: 68

    @blackdog @larynxa Count me in to the weird kid who practiced being blind and was suddenly forced to write with the wrong hand. I still close my eyes and wander around my house sometimes. I even tried to learn to read braille once. And I used to watch tv with almost no sound so I could learn to read lips.

    To remember left from right during directions…I have to hold up my left hand to form an “L”.

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    #122123

    blackdog
    Member
    Post count: 906

    @wanderquest @Larynxa

    Never mind the world, I don’t think I’m ready.

    I learned to read Braille at one time too. But I can’t remember any of it now. It’s really hard to do when you’re not blind.

    I have never been much good at speech reading with no sound. But I read lips a lot when I am in noisy environments to fill in the gaps when I miss something. I wasn’t even aware I was doing it until my mother went for a hearing test one time and the audiologist told her she must be reading lips. She said she didn’t know how and the audiologist explained that as her hearing got worse she had gradually learned to do  it without realizing it. That’s when I noticed that I do it too.

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    #122129

    darkwynde
    Member
    Post count: 42

    I don’t usually “see” words or numbers in my mind so much (although, now that I’m typing this, images of equations are popping up in my head LOL).  What DOES happen is, when my eyes are closed, if I move a finger, arm, leg, or toe, I “see” the movement in my mind, even though my eyes are closed.  It’s not detailed, or in color, just a visual impression of movement, like a dim shadow, almost seen but not quite.

    However, when I do math, I instinctively find shortcuts that other people never seem to think of.  For instance:   96 X 4;   96 is 4 less than 100, so 96 X 4 is 16 less than 400.  16 is  10+5+1, so 96 X 4 then must be 400 – 10 – 5 – 1, or 384.

    When I read a novel, with certain authors, I “get into the flow” of the story to the point where I’m no longer consciously reading words on paper, the narrative just leaps into my mind without any conscious effort.  If I had to guess, I’d say it’s either the result of hyperfocusing on the story, or the fact that these authors are simply masters of their craft, and their word choice forms a smooth rhythm in my mind as I read.  As long as that rhythm isn’t broken, I fall into it in no time flat, and BOOM, I’m in the middle of the story, watching it unfold around me.

     

    Also, totally unrelated, but I can’t look at a written word without reading it; it’s a real pain in the @$$ when I’m driving, ’cause every sign I pass forces its meaning into my mind,a nd I can’t stop it.  It’s like drinking from a fire hose.

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