#synesthesia problems

1) Trying to describe things by relating them to their synesthetic experience

This is similar to the bilingual problem where you can only think of the word in the foreign language (from the other person’s perspective). For example, I once got several strange looks from my friends for trying to describe this man’s voice as the “yellow-y texture of somewhat fine sandpaper”

2) Messing up tests because they were confused by their synesthesia

Okay that didn’t really make a ton of sense, but I’ll do my best to explain it. Synesthetes (people with synesthesia) will sometimes associate things that have the same arbetrary color/smell/texture assigned to them. For example, I’ve messed up on tests because the letters F, T, and the number 5 are all the exact same shade of forest green. And then there’s explaining to my bewildered teacher why I accedentally subsituted the variable T with the number 5 and came up with the completely wrong answer.

3) Remembering someone’s name from a decade ago when they’ve not talked to them in that same amount of time and they weren’t exactly influencial

Like point #2, synesthesia can mess with memory. It might take a little while to attach faces to names, but after that, sometimes names will stick absurdly well because “oh yeah I remember that kid’s face - he was the one with the muddy purple name - oh, that was marco!”

4) Explaining for the thousandth time that synesthesia is the ASSOCIATION of two otherwise unrelated senses (most commonly known is colors and words or colors and letters), NOT literally seeing the color float through your vision

This can get a little frustrating, but giving your character a go-to way of describing it can be fun. Mine is “keep your eyes open and imagine the color blue. Can you tell what the exact shade is? Probably. Is it literally floating through your vision? No. Synesthesia is the same except the colors are arbetrary (though consistant), but they occupy the same mental space as the blue you just came up with.”

It’s like it either physically hurts in my mind (usually bc the range of the music doesn’t match my vocal range), or if I’m processing it more fully, it’s like im on some sort of rollercoaster ride and I hate rollercoasters. Or like it’s surrounding me and I’m ‘afraid’ of it (or maybe overwhelmed by it??) sensory-wise.

Why do I smell season 1 and 2 of Voltron?

“Cucumber" tastes like dill and milk.

Sorry for this

So. I have synesthsia. And I know nobody else who does (who's not online). its kind of driving me insane. Because I just don't understand. I don't understand how when I show a song to someone, they can't see the thin blue line running behind the green dots and the pink fog. I don't understand how they can't see the movements people make and hear the sounds like a tinny yet round piano they make with every gesture, every step. I understand that it doesn't happen for you, I just don't understand what its like. And I try to explain. I really do. Like how Kat's voice is chocolate cake, but not the taste, the smell. How Taylor smells blue, just like a soft cat feels, and she sounds like a storm on the ocean, not the actual sound but the taste of electricity and salt and rain all mixed in white wind. How physical pain is on a scale of black to white, with pixelated blue-and-grey inbetween. How some letters overpower others in a word and turn almost the whole thing their colour, even if the letters are shy, but numbers are always stubborn, even 6 (she always is reading and stays quiet), and therefore don't change colour for anyone.