[wdutch]

I agree that it's a disorder. I have aphantasia and wish I didn't. I have low resilience due to having no ability to go to a "happy place" or recall pleasant memories. I wonder if other aphantasiacs have a similar experience or have figured out other ways to keep their mental health up.

I'd love to see research into if self-reported aphantasia correlates to depression or anxiety.

[lll-o-lll]

I think this side of things is more to do with severe autobiographical memory deficit, which not all aphants have. But I do.

The thing is; SAMD is often a symptom of depression also, so this is a little chicken and egg. For my own experience, there is definitely a pro in that negative past experiences may as well have never happened; I just don’t care (although I do think there can still be a visceral learning; aversions that don’t come with emotional memory). However, the big con is that a bad time feels like life has always been that way. Again, this is a depression symptom anyway, so chicken and egg. I’m old enough to ride out this roller-coaster of life with my intellectual memories. I know things can change, and what to do when current life experiences suck (sometimes just wait it out, sometime act), so that’s my way to get through the tough times without memories of better times.

[taneliv]

Contrary to your experience, the article suggests that aphantasia could be correlated with less mental health issues. Doesn't seem impossible to me, but they don't offer anything to back that claim.

As an aphantasic, I tend to escape to entirely fantastical settings and situations when asked to go to my happy place. I don't see them, but I kind of tell myself stories, with elaborate descriptions of landscapes and situations.

My imagination is maybe all symbolic, but it hasn't felt like a disorder, more like a super power: imagining things, I'm not constrained so directly by my life experiences.