Is this synesthesia

Post Reply New Topic

While attempting to describe a violin sound I realised that its impossible for me to put the timbral quality into words. The sound is similar in quality to a crow's call - it has that same penetrating quality, very close very thick. Thing is I can "taste" the sound. Its hard to explain and I have this extra-auditory reaction to other sorts of sounds. Its a sort of vibration on the molars occupying the back of my tongue - as I said very difficult to quantify but I "feel" the sound as a physical phenomenon. Is that synesthetic or "Neurotypical"?

I dont literally feel my mouth vibrating - its more subtle than that. It isnt consistent either but the mapping is. i.e. soft mealy clicks and brittle savage violin double stops

Yes, that is synesthesia. Enjoy it.

hmmm didnt think it was hence why I asked. I mean everyone experiences this to some degree. For instance the sound of nails on a chalkboard or a chair scraping is a pseudo physical sensation for most people. You may not literally feel the chair but you have a sense that its being scraped across your nervouss fibres. Its somewhat like that but less intense and all consuming

Then there are the words which represent concepts such as rotund which always sounded rather large and round to me. Robust, Scrape, Tin. I know that NT's experience this to a certain degree because ive asked.

what? No thats normal. Ive heard neurotypicals referring to words like delicate which sound delicate my entire life. Japanese has this sound symbolism too waka waka if my memory serves me. Might refer to something broken down or some sort of perservering effort

The scraping is physically painful. That just makes me feel dusty with all that chalk going everywhere. I seem to have a more visual memory than auditory when I think of it.

There are some things that NTs without synesthesia feel that could seem mild synesthesia but it's not because it more of a common thing. I think the word rotund is deliberately trying to invoke imagery rather than someone with synesthesia who can be given a basic word that has nothing to do with shape and gets the same imagery with texture and possibly even emotions. And these words could have been influenced a lot by someone with synesthesia.

Tasting music is definitely synesthesia. I see colours and shapes and I might feel a few textures, smell a few things from memory.

Delicate feels like liquid btw.

It's common for someone to think it's normal. I was explaining this to my sister and she thought everyone could taste a memory. Some people don't even want a label applied to it because they might think there's something wrong with them. It's possibly the only brain difference that isn't a disorder, yet it's most prominent when you have a disorder like me with my autism/bipolar/ epilepsy combo.

Anyway, strawberries. Mmm...strawberry thick shake. I never get sick of invoking such a memory.

Synesthesia basically happens when an individual's meaning of something is not expressed by other people, so there isn't a complete way of describing the meaning.

For example, a tree is a tree because we all agree it's a tree. The way I might imagine a tree or describe it would be very similar to most other people's. Or let's say I describe a fire as being "Orange, lit up, and warm." Most others would agree with this definition.

I sense personalities in numbers and objects. So I couldn't say, "Well you know a four is discrete and female, whereas a five is male and has a big personality." Other people might just see a four written out, or have some other way of thinking about fours. But they're not likely to experience a four in the same way that I do, so it's synesthesia.

And yes, you should enjoy it.