21 Apr 2018, 4:03 am
21 Apr 2018, 8:05 am
21 Apr 2018, 9:10 am
9BillionNamesofGod wrote:
I have recently been diagnosed with Aspergers and maybe some of you here could explain what I have with colours:
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying.
I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them.
An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying.
I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them. An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
It sounds very much like synesthesia, which comes in many different forms. Wikipedia has a concise description of the most common kinds that you might want to browse. The senses can get mixed up with your emotions, and it doesn't always have to be a forceful impression, either, which is called projective synesthesia. Associative synesthesia just gives a person a strong sense of one thing belonging to another.
I have some associative synesthesia-like traits, but I think they stem from OCD in my case. Numbers have personalities, and I find some colors threatening, but it's more of a learned systemization than intuition. Like you, I could also stare at some images or colors for hours, except I'm afraid the feeling would fade if I over-indulged and never come back, so I take it in doses.
21 Apr 2018, 7:50 pm
elsapelsa wrote:
IsabellaLinton, love your name.
That is brilliant about naming your children, I just told my daughter! This really puts the ongoing reassurances she needs when naming dolls or setting up games and my difficulties in helping her get it right into perspective. No wonder this leads to discord and hesitation for her. So many factors to take into account.
She has talked of this for a while now. I didn't realise it was such a well known phenomenon.
She loves art. We spend ages at art museums. She loves Kandinsky, and Van Gogh. She has always had a very special talent for art. I used to think it was just me being a proud mum but now everyone has started to notice her artistic abilities! And thinking about it a lot of her strength in art is her colour composition.
That is brilliant about naming your children, I just told my daughter! This really puts the ongoing reassurances she needs when naming dolls or setting up games and my difficulties in helping her get it right into perspective. No wonder this leads to discord and hesitation for her. So many factors to take into account.
She has talked of this for a while now. I didn't realise it was such a well known phenomenon.
She loves art. We spend ages at art museums. She loves Kandinsky, and Van Gogh. She has always had a very special talent for art. I used to think it was just me being a proud mum but now everyone has started to notice her artistic abilities! And thinking about it a lot of her strength in art is her colour composition.
Thank you! I adore the complex character of Isabella Linton and find a lot of parallels in our lives (sadly). I believe she is one of the most compelling heroines in English literature.
I love that your daughter enjoys art. It is a natural extension of synesthesia and a very enriching field of study. I've been obsessed with Van Gogh in particular for several years (my favourite is Poppy Field, 1890).
It's ironic that you mention your daughter's difficulty with naming dolls. I had difficulty naming dolls as well, and ended up naming them all "Amy". Yes, every doll I ever had was named Amy even though I had several Amys at once. It was the only name that seemed like the correct colour for the feeling I got from my dolls.
I notice that you mentioned your daughter's difficulty selecting clothes for different days of the week because of synesthesia. I understand this perfectly. Mondays are blue, Tuesdays white, Wednesdays red, Thursdays very pale grey / white (like soft smoke), Fridays blue but different from Mondays, and weekends are yellow. I don't dress for those colours but I do sense them strongly and they affect me emotionally. I have always had a bad relationship with Tuesdays, and I generally feel ill on Sundays because they're too yellow. Every month has a colour. April is the colour of 4 (apple green), which is interesting since it's the fourth month. I like that your daughter and I agree on #4!
If you have any other questions about synesthesia please let me know. I don't know what it's like "not" to have synesthesia, but I feel like it's a special gift for people who sense this way.
Isabella
21 Apr 2018, 8:04 pm
9BillionNamesofGod wrote:
I have recently been diagnosed with Aspergers and maybe some of you here could explain what I have with colours:
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying. I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them.
An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying.
I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them. An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
Hello 9 Billion,
It seems that you experience a form of synesthesia involving colour overlapping with emotion which is not uncommon. I have many of the same reactions to colour that you've described. I am intensely offended by orange (it makes me angry and I can entirely relate to your response when seeing orange if you expected blue). There are two shades of turquoise which actually frighten me and give me panic attacks. I'm quite certain they aren't associations or flashbacks of anything. There's just something about the energy in the colours which can make me extremely upset. I have many, many emotional responses to yellow and it seems to be a motif throughout my life (so many bizarre instances of unexpected yellow).
Monet was obsessed with colour and sometimes spent years perfecting and changing or mixing precise shades to represent the fleetingness of sunlight (always changing with the clouds). As he grew blind you'll notice his artwork shows more red and warm colours, because that is all he could see and represent.
Colour is a magic force of energy. Enjoy your relationship to its power
Isabella
21 Apr 2018, 8:24 pm
I don't have synesthesia, I've always wondered how it would feel. I can't quite comprehend it even though I know it exists 
I do have an irrational hatred of the colour teal though.
21 Apr 2018, 11:48 pm
Anthracite_Impreza wrote:
I don't have synesthesia, I've always wondered how it would feel. I can't quite comprehend it even though I know it exists
I do have an irrational hatred of the colour teal though.
I do have an irrational hatred of the colour teal though.
I have a irrational hatred for the colour purple. I would never in a million years wear purple, buy anything purple, I just avoid it...... apart from when I am pregnant. Then I am strangely drawn to wearing purple. Odd huh?
22 Apr 2018, 12:02 am
Anthracite_Impreza wrote:
I don't have synesthesia, I've always wondered how it would feel. I can't quite comprehend it even though I know it exists
For me it doesn't feel like anything really, it's just necessary. I got a shock one day in my mid-twenties when a casual conversation with my parents led me to realise "hang on - you don't see things this way? This is not how everyone sees words/numbers/timelines?".
I see timelines (like the days of the week, for example) in a physical space in front of me, in my mind's eye. I honestly can't imagine how other people can get by without seeing things this way!
I would love to know what it's like to not visualise timelines and still somehow remember things or talk about things that happened at a certain point in time.
22 Apr 2018, 12:15 am
22 Apr 2018, 11:48 am
IsabellaLinton wrote:
9BillionNamesofGod wrote:
I have recently been diagnosed with Aspergers and maybe some of you here could explain what I have with colours:
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying. I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them.
An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
I don't think it is synesthesia, although I can easily assign colours to, for example, smells, and they are always the same, but it is not automatic.
What I have is that colours sometimes have a very intense, emotional effect on me. Once I had a meltdown because my flatmate changed his blue jumper to an orange one without warning, and I hate orange, plus it was a very offensive coulour as well. I shouted something along the lines of "how can you offend me this way?!" and started crying.
I was surprised at myself and so was he, but he also found it funny because we had been living together for a while and he knew about many of my idiosyncrasies and even liked some of them. An other example is when I was on the bus and a yellow truck stopped just next to my window and I looked there and wes surprised by all the happy yellow and started laughing. People looked at me, and again, I was surprised myself as well by my reaction.
Also, sometimes I see colours and I feel I could spend the whole day looking at just that one colour, and I think I could really do it! Or at least several hours.
I remember when I was a teen and we went to see a Monet exhibition, there was a painting of a willow tree that grabbed my attention and I sat there for a long time, others found it a bit weird. But then, I have always had an intense relationship with art, recently started doing photography and people often say that my photos are "different" and "very artistic". (Problem is recently I don't have much time to do it because of studies and other interests.)
Any thoughts on this? Why do colours affect me this way?
Hello 9 Billion,
It seems that you experience a form of synesthesia involving colour overlapping with emotion which is not uncommon. I have many of the same reactions to colour that you've described. I am intensely offended by orange (it makes me angry and I can entirely relate to your response when seeing orange if you expected blue). There are two shades of turquoise which actually frighten me and give me panic attacks. I'm quite certain they aren't associations or flashbacks of anything. There's just something about the energy in the colours which can make me extremely upset. I have many, many emotional responses to yellow and it seems to be a motif throughout my life (so many bizarre instances of unexpected yellow).
Monet was obsessed with colour and sometimes spent years perfecting and changing or mixing precise shades to represent the fleetingness of sunlight (always changing with the clouds). As he grew blind you'll notice his artwork shows more red and warm colours, because that is all he could see and represent.
Colour is a magic force of energy. Enjoy your relationship to its power
Isabella
This might be it. I just never thought that synesthesia can be an overlap between colours and emotions, but it makes a lot of sense now. I agree with what you are saying about the energy of colours - actually this describes pretty well how I perceive them.
Dusty shades of pink and pastel mint have a calming effect on me, however, my room has to be mainly white because otherwise it is too overwhelming for me. I feel I couldn't rest properly with a lot of colours around, all doing their things and interacting with each other.
22 Apr 2018, 12:15 pm
30 Apr 2018, 9:46 am
SplendidSnail wrote:
I actually heard about this quite a few years before I heard about High Functioning Autism.
I was reading a book called "A Mango Shaped Space", a youth fiction novel where the protagonist is a 13 year old girl who synesthesia. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it frankly made me kind of wish I had synesthesia at the time.
Not sure how old your daughter is, but it might be something she would enjoy reading, either now or in the future. Or maybe you might enjoy reading it with her.
I was reading a book called "A Mango Shaped Space", a youth fiction novel where the protagonist is a 13 year old girl who synesthesia. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it frankly made me kind of wish I had synesthesia at the time.
Not sure how old your daughter is, but it might be something she would enjoy reading, either now or in the future. Or maybe you might enjoy reading it with her.
My daughter is loving this book. She said the girl is just like her. Thank you so much! Her class teacher is reading it too.
I am reading cytowic's latest book "synesthesia" Loving it too. There are so many types of synesthesia. Like a woman who hears sounds from each colour and a man whose food groups are all coloured and who loves creating culinary delights based on colured food. Quite an eye opener. I love this bit from the intro:
"Synesthesia holds a cautionary lesson about blind acceptance of orthodoxy and the intellectual cost of groupthink. Science has its fashions as other fields do, times when everyone falls in step with prevailing dogma. But it also has turning points when conventional wisdom collapses and new paradigms take hold. That is what happened with the phenomenon of synesthesia."
01 May 2018, 9:10 am
07 May 2018, 9:18 pm
elsapelsa wrote:
My daughter is loving this book. She said the girl is just like her. Thank you so much! Her class teacher is reading it too.
That's awesome - I'm glad.
I was a bit worried when you said she was only 8 and going to be reading the book on her own. There are a few parts that are quite sad, and I wasn't sure how an 8-year-old would deal with it without someone reading the book with her to discuss it.
And it's cool that her teacher is reading it too.
08 May 2018, 9:23 am
SplendidSnail wrote:
elsapelsa wrote:
My daughter is loving this book. She said the girl is just like her. Thank you so much! Her class teacher is reading it too.
That's awesome - I'm glad.
I was a bit worried when you said she was only 8 and going to be reading the book on her own. There are a few parts that are quite sad, and I wasn't sure how an 8-year-old would deal with it without someone reading the book with her to discuss it.
And it's cool that her teacher is reading it too.
Thanks, I wanted to read it ahead of her but she just grabbed it and is flying through it. She is really loving it. She has decided to write a series of her own books on "Being an Aspie-girl" "Being a Synesthete" and "Being a sensory-seeker," and she is also busy setting up a bunch of experiments (such as slamming doors, to see if it produces a colour!) and she is talking through the book with me as she goes so think she is ok with it. Yesterday though I asked her if she had told any of her friends that she has colour synesthesia and she said: no and that she was worried they would find it odd.
It is quite nice because Mia (in the book) is going through the same worries about whether to share or not share and it is giving my daughter some interesting perspectives.
Thanks again.
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08 May 2018, 4:27 pm
SplendidSnail wrote:
I actually heard about this quite a few years before I heard about High Functioning Autism.
I was reading a book called "A Mango Shaped Space", a youth fiction novel where the protagonist is a 13 year old girl who synesthesia. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it frankly made me kind of wish I had synesthesia at the time.
Not sure how old your daughter is, but it might be something she would enjoy reading, either now or in the future. Or maybe you might enjoy reading it with her.
I was reading a book called "A Mango Shaped Space", a youth fiction novel where the protagonist is a 13 year old girl who synesthesia. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it frankly made me kind of wish I had synesthesia at the time.
Not sure how old your daughter is, but it might be something she would enjoy reading, either now or in the future. Or maybe you might enjoy reading it with her.
A Mango Shaped Space is on my list of all-time favourite stories, I've read it multiple times. I have grapheme-colour synaesthesia for letters, numbers, words and shapes. I didn't even realise it was unusual until I learned about it in a high school psychology class. I was watching a video of a woman who saw coloured letters and thought, "Hm, that feels vaguely familiar!"
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