Do you have synesthesia?

WhatFor

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 1:38 pm

Just curious because I find the concept quite cool.
Do you have synesthesia? How does it manifest itself? Is it awesome or does it get in the way of your life?

amother

Mint

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 2:21 pm

Yes! Color-grapheme and another kind- I forget the name- where I see time as space of a certain shape.

Color grapheme- mostly manifests itself when I'm bored Very Happy

I recall looking at one of the signs on a bus, maybe the one not to throw anything out the window, and noticing that a pair of adjacent letters in a word seemed to be different colors, except the same color. I concluded they must have changed ink cartridges or something in between the two letters, or if it was handpainted used a dirty brush and switched in the middle, because one was black with a blue undertone and the other was black with an orange undertone. And the effect disappeared when I stopped looking at it directly. About a year later I read an article about synesthesia and realized that's what I had!

I've met at least 4 other people IRL who have it, two of them siblings of mine, though not all 4 have the same type. Both of my siblings who have it have color-grapheme, and one also tastes colors. I can only imagine what that's like! Put two synesthetes together, though, and you inevitably get an argument about what colors particular letters are.

In short, mostly awesome, until it went and messed up my previously good sense of right and left. 'R' is red and dominates the word "right", while the 'E' in the middle of "left" is a soft gray and the word is more muted. Then I moved to EY and learned fluent Hebrew, and behold! The א in שמאל is red while ימין is muted. And now I need to look at my hands when I'm told a direction Sad

sourstix

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 2:24 pm

This is so interesting. I have never heard of this. Cool.

Water Stones

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 8:40 pm

One of my brothers.
For a lot sounds he smells them, like really truly in his nose.
My parents thought ok it's something like a memory in his brain but he said no he smells it! He told them this when he was little and he kept saying don't you smell that?

We learned about synesthesia from our child hood pediatrician who said it when my mother was concern and ask him about this like maybe my brother got a brain problem.

I have 5 brothers (no sisters) and he's the only one like this. And he's 23 and is different than us that he's very quiet and more thinking boy. And very excellent in understanding people feelings and emotions and talking to them in a few words that help comfort them. Maybe it is connected????

amother

Orange

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 8:46 pm

Definitely as a child. I remember learning to read and associating sounds with colors. Komatz is brown, patach is black, tzeireh is yellow, segol is a lighter yellow, Cholam is purple, koobootz is a reddish purple, chirik is white.

I would also associate voices with colors. A brown voice is a richer, deeper voice.

amother

Saddlebrown

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 8:51 pm

Is synethesia limited to colors?

I have images for everything. Cannot process a concept without an image. Not necessarily a particular color attached to it.

amother

Brown

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 9:08 pm

I do! Things like numbers, months, days of the week, and even people all have a color. My sister and my daughter have it too.

amother

Rose

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 10:23 pm

Yes! Letters, days, months and yomim tovim all have colors.
My father and son have it too and we get into (friendly) arguments about what color things are. Other relatives think we're nuts Smile

WhatFor

Tue, Feb 21 2017, 1:29 am

Fascinating! Thanks for responding Very Happy

If you have children, do any of them have it as well?

DallasIma

Tue, Feb 21 2017, 5:57 am

I have perfect pitch and color-music synesthesia. What a pair of gifts from Hashem! Music has colors for me and I've experienced that as long as I can remember. It's like my own personal light show. I can't even imagine how music would be without color. It's all part of the same thing for me. None of my kids have this, but all of them are musical in various ways.

amother

Natural

Tue, Feb 21 2017, 6:14 am

WhatFor wrote:

Fascinating! Thanks for responding Very Happy

If you have children, do any of them have it as well?

I have a child with synesthesia, but neither of her parents do.

amother

Sapphire

Tue, Feb 21 2017, 6:18 am

I see words as pictures/objects. Not really sure how to explain it, but my friend (who hears tastes/smells) tells me that it's a form of synesthesia. It's annoying, because I cringe at spelling errors.

DallasIma

Tue, Feb 21 2017, 6:34 am

I also cringe at spelling errors - I've always been a good speller and have won a lot of spelling bees, and I work part-time as a proofreader - but that has nothing to do with my synesthesia. Normally I don't see words or letters as colors, except where I can trace that back to something specific (for example, the word Ventnor looks yellow to me because Ventnor Ave. is a yellow property on the Monopoly board). But music inherently has colors for me. When I was a child and I'd hear one particular instrumental passage on a record, I'd always think of it as a red thread running through a tapestry. That's just one of countless examples.