Synesthesia?

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Thank you for the kind words, outlier. Those, however, whether inappropriate or not, are the exact words my doctor used to describe my life with autism almost immediately after he re-confirmed my autism diagnosis. I have wondered if he either does not really have a grasp on this condition, or does not like the condition or by association to the condition, the people who have it. The words really stung.

Yes, lots of synesthesia. I agree that it's neither good nor bad, but since I also have hyperacute senses, I find explaining to people what I sense very difficult.

Colors have textures to them, and patterns have sounds, so colors can have sounds.
My sense of taste and smell almost entirely overlap, and tastes often have colors (but never sounds).
Tactile sensations come with colors too, but no smells or sounds.

The only real problem this caused was when I was in public school and given the usual "creative" writing assignment. My attempts at creative writing or poetry were celebrated by my teachers, and I couldn't understand why, since I was just writing literally what I saw. Telling the teachers that resulted in visits to school counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, who ultimately came up with the idea that I was a prodromal schizophrenic (this was in the early 1980s, when AS was a diagnosis). The synesthesia stayed, I began to learn that my perceptions are different from NTs', and so it went.

I've always associated music, numbers, and patterns with feelings. Some numbers, music, and patterns are good and I like to repeat them, or see them, or hear them over and over again. Some are not and I avoid them. I have been known to play the same song dozens of time over and over again just because I like a few bars of the music. My phone numbers, passwords, pin numbers etc. all have to be numbers that I've chosen for how I feel about them. They are good numbers.

I guess it's not all so weird after all... just interesting.

I've unofficially diagnosed myself with Synesthesia, seeing how I refer to Music → color. At night whenever I'm listening to music or about 5 - 10 minutes after finishing listening to music, I close my eyes, and see at least one of different colours per session. At first I thought it was the whole "residual image" (burnt memory thing), but it keeps happening. I recently posted a topic about it, as well.

I do, which is why it's my username.

I can smell and taste music, think of music in colours based on keys, associate abstract concepts with smells and tastes, smell and taste some words, feel music on my skin and think of it in textures.

But I hate the sight of pink and orange together because it makes me nauseated.

I avoid many color combos for similar reasons. Pink by itself is too fluffy and sticky a color, and orange is grating and has brass-like harmonics. My home seems very colorful to me, but others tell me it is practically monotonic.

Yeah, I want my apartment to have more blue. Blue is nice and soothing and tasty. It's not a musical color, but it's just yummy.

Yellow and pink are also disgusting. I can't stand seeing women walk by me with those pink paisley gross purses because they disgust me so much.
Pink, orange yellow PAISLEY. GROSS!

I don't have synesthesia, but wish I did. It sounds great to have another channel for seeing patterns in the world. Although I can imagine how it might get distracting.

I recently read a short article (Scientific American Mind? Psychology Today?) about how research suggests that synesthesia (like many other neurological conditions) is more of a spectrum than a yes/no condition. They think we're all born with some neuronal overlapping of the senses, then most of these overlaps are pruned away as the brain finishes developing in infancy. Leaving the person with varying degrees of synesthesia.

I have it too. The numbers, the months and some voices have colours. The name of people have colours too.
Some cities are combinations of colours. As a child I had taste-smell synesthesia too (but this one is quite common as both senses are so linked).

A discrete synesthesia but I like it...