For most people colors and words are words. There is no overlap. But for me, a “vision”, colors and words are mixed. Monday is pink, September is yellow, the letter “J” is blue and number seven is lime green – obviously. Each vision associates words and colors in different ways, but my pairing has stayed true because I can first remember that they noticed them in kindergarten.
Synesthesia is rare, but on one last season of “Love on the Spectrum”, role member David tells about the condition and his long -lasting girlfriend Abbey Serenader him About how she has learned to understand his system. My heart melted.
Synesthesia Literally, the “association of the mind” means, and it is a neurological phenomenon that causes the senses to mix. So for a vision, when a feeling is activated, another independent feeling is triggered at the same time. Neurologists have discovered at least 75 different types of synesthesia, but I am what is called a Grafem color visionWhich means I associate numbers, letters and words with specific colors.
But I didn’t know I saw, heard or experienced language “different” until I was a second in college. When I studied midterms one night, I went into the library’s bathroom and closed the stable door; Taped on the inside was an aircraft that read: “Do you hear colors? Do you have words with specific shades, tones and patterns? If so, are you willing to participate in a study? Email us.”
The sign was strangely relevant. I remember thinking “Wait. Not everyone has this experience?” I went back to my friends to tell them about the aircraft and my reality. No one could behave. But for me, the fact felt that they did not seem to know that the letter “S” was butter yellow felt scary abnormally.
I emailed the medical researchers and a day later I sat in a lab. Over the next two weeks, I participated in a series of visual tests, hearing response and electronic memory games. In a recited researcher a long list of words and I answered with my associated color.
The whole process was fascinating because it was an inner scoop on how my mind works, but it was also difficult for me to understand that not everyone was linked like me. Synesthesia seemed as an obvious standard. But after finding out that the condition had a name and where not Everyone’s experience, I went down on a research rabbit hole.
The study I participated in helped to confirm that I probably have synesthesia and what type, but there is actually no questionnaire, clinical test or blood work that can officially diagnose the condition. Some people take tests like ‘Synesthesia“Containing a series of exams, questions, points and raised based data that will determine your” diagnosis “.
The absence of diagnostic tests and lack of awareness of the condition means it is difficult to know how common it really is but current evidence points to rough Four percent of the world population With this sensory overlap.
It is difficult to describe exactly what it “feels” like having graphm-color synesthesia, since it is not really a feeling in itself; It’s more like an subconscious software that constantly goes through my mind. I don’t see a wash of color over my vision at some time I hear a letter, word or number, but I have strong compounds in my mind. It is never confusing or disturbing and I do not even think of synesthesia very daily. The word itself has only one obvious, visualized color. . . In my head.
In addition to Grafem-color synesthesia I also have a small case of Regular linguistic personification. It is when ordered sequences, such as weeks or months, are associated with personalities or genders. It’s just like when someone mentions your mom and you have an immediate, automatic attribution to “Oh yes, my mom is smart, witty and the party’s life.” Except instead of a person, it happens by days or months. For example, Thursday (yellow) is bland and boring, while Wednesday (orange) is spunky. August (hot pink) is feminine, delicious and untouched. October (black) is strict, daring and half serious. I do not associate all weeks and months with a personality, but they all have strong designated colors.
The specific developed colors and personality traits are always the same for me: Wednesday is orange and spunky, has been orange and spunky since I was in kindergarten and will be orange and spunky forever. But not all vision ethhetics have the same compounds, per Plos one.
Example: A few months after completing the study, I was at dinner with my family when I randomly mentioned my newfound character. My younger brother’s face was lit. “Wednesday is pink. Not orange,” he said. My parents sat there in distrust. We then spent the rest of the night comparing notes. My dad went through the months, the weekdays and names of our friends and family, and on the count of three we both said its color. We had some overlap, especially for weekdays, but otherwise our associations were quite polarizing.
Genetic Research suggests There is a strong connection in families, but the exact genes involved remain unclear. My brother (my only sibling) has synesthesia, but my parents don’t. While they try to understand what it means when I explain that “mom” is ruby red and “dad” is cobalt blue, they never fully understand how a simple word can have such a powerful color association. Both sets of my grandparents have gone, but I can’t help wonder if they also lived their lives in color.
Synesthesia is more common among creative and imaginative senses, and Study report This cross -sensory experience increases originality. Billy Joel, Pharrell Williams, Billie EarthAnd Maggie Rogers has all the synesthesia and uses their overlapping senses to visualize sound and create music. I’m not in any way musically inclined, but I would like to think I’m creative. I have made a career of writing and stories, and the associations make words more convincing. Reading and writing has never felt like work, and the importance of words and their place in a sense is just natural.
Studies Also show Synestetes has an excellent and improved memory. Personally, I have a very detailed, height and sometimes deeply personal feeling of memory. I’m good with names and dates or when and where someone wore an outfit. I can also visualize notes and pictures on a crowded page, with perhaps even a subtle photographic memory. I do not necessarily use the color compounds to remember names, dates or clothes, but I cannot help but wonder if my high quality memory is in any way related to the condition. My brother, on the other hand, can memorize entire script scenes of movies and the lyrics to any song and can easily pick up new languages.
Synesthesia is a largely positive condition without known disadvantages. For 20 years I lived unaware of my lively phenomenon, and besides now knowing that not everyone is experiencing the same associations as I do, not much has changed for me since I found out that I am a vision. That said, the phrase “Live Life in Color” is a cheese -like trop, but that’s true: I live a pretty colorful life. Roses are red, violets are blue and Friday will always be green.
Andi Breitowich is a Chicago-based freelance writer and degree from Emory University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in PS, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and elsewhere. She is a mass consumer of social media, former collegiate pole vaults and cares about holistic wellness and non-stigmatizing reproductive care.
