Oh, so, that's not normal?

glasgowtolondon

lyndausvi said:

I thought pencil/pen marks on the side of your writing hand was normal.  

Then I found out it's only normal for us lefties. 

Don't forget 'reprinting' whatever you've just written with the side of your hand - especially when you are addressing, say, wedding invitations 

Fellow leftie here!

short+sassy

MissKittyDanger said:

short+sassy said:

On the other side of the coin, as a little kid (3-6 years), I wondered why what was "normal" for everyone else was not normal for me.  Specifically with weather.

I lived in So. CA and waited every year for the birds to "fly South for the winter".  And for the leaves to turn all the pretty shades like they do in my books.  I waited for snow that never came.  All this stuff happened in my books and cartoons, but I never saw any of it.  At the time, it was confusing, lol. 

I'm oddly envious. I live in Canada, and there are parts that get more snow than others.
Every fall I see birds leave and I yell "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE US!! IT'S TOO EARLY!"

Then we get windchill of -40 so don't wish for snow. Lol

(Shamefaced) I still wish for snow though, as an adult, I'm glad I don't live in it.  Where I grew up, according to historical records, it snowed once in the 1890s during some freak weather phenomenon.

However, where I live now in NOLA, it's a bit colder and we will have a day with some snow about every 5-8 years.  Though, right now, we are on an 11-12 year streak with none.

When it does snow here, it's hilarious!  And magical, because it is so rare.  You'll see grown men in their stuffy suits interrupt their work to go outside and throw snowballs at each other.  It's like everyone turns into a 5-year-old child for a brief period of time (in a good way) and just stares with wonder out the window and/or goes outside to play.

The last time it happened, the snowfall was for a few hours in the morning, but was already melting by midday and totally gone when I left for work at 5PM.  Except for the snowmen people had built in their front yards.  So, there would be these lush, green grass front yards...with a snowman so incongruously (sp?) in the middle of them, lol. 

crowsgirl15

Sherbie25 said:

crowsgirl15 said:

I have a weird thing since I was a very young kid where if I move my head too fast or a certain way I get a popping, burning sensation in my head. It kind of feels like something pops and then something burning oozes out. It goes away fairly quickly, but it hurts a lot for about 30 seconds.

It doesn't happen as often as an adult...but when I was a kid, I assumed it happened to everyone. I mentioned it to my parents once, and they were obviously very confused. Doctors say it's just a thing, probably nerve related, but I thought it was normal for a long time.

I also had this as a kid, not so much now. Sorry to ruin your uniqueness!

DAMMIT I'M NOT COOL ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!

Haha, no, it's nice to hear I'm not alone Though it's painful, so sorry about that for you!

crowsgirl15

madamerwin said:

charlotte989875 said:

madamerwin said:

So this is kind of hard to explain, but I have something called number-form synesthesia. Numbers have set places in space in my head... Like, 1 is right in front of me, and then numbers up to ten curve up to the right, and then 11-20 do a diagonal to the left, and then 21-30 kind of curve up sharply to the left... Eventually, you get to 100, which is off in the distance, up and to the left. The higher the number, the farther up and to the left it is, but it's not on a linear plane, exactly.  When I think about a certain number, it's like I am standing on it, and I can see all the other numbers going off in each direction. Any number more than about 20 away is kind of fuzzy until I "jump" to it.

Similarly, the calendar year is laid out in a specific pattern in my head, and I view the rest of the year from the current date. It kind of looks like pickup sticks in a rough circle floating in 3 dimensions. For example, today is August 15, so when I think about December 1st, it's kind of off to my right, about 30 degrees away and slightly uphill. I have a knack for remembering people's birthdays, because in my head, I place that person on their day - so when I think of, say, my niece, I see an image of her on May 28th.

Never had any idea that most people do not see numbers as dimensional with fixed places in space, until it somehow came up in conversation with my dad. He was fascinated by it, and it turns out that whenever it comes up (usually by way of someone I know mentioning it to someone else), everyone thinks I'm crazy.

That's so cool. I've never heard of anyone thinking of numbers like that (and I do math most work days); did you find that math was easier for you?

Some math, yes... Algebra in particular, since I can add/subtract/divide/multiply large numbers by "looking" at them in my head. I went through calculus in high school and did well in it, but I credit my teachers for that more than my weird brain. I remember number sequences - like phone numbers - very easily as well.

The calendar thing is the most useful, though (I think that may actually be called spatial sequence synesthesia, though to me, they seem to be the same principle). I literally remember everyone's birthdays, if I have been told once, since that person then "occupies" that date in my head. Also don't forget appointments easily. If you were to look at my calendar from above, it's laid out like 12 sticks - one for each month. April is near the top, November is near the bottom. Some months are roughly parallel with the first at the bottom and the last day at the top (like September - January), but then February is off at a 45 degree angle, and March is stacked on top (so March 1st is directly above February 28/29). But usually I "view" it from wherever I am in the year, and everything is on a horizontal plane like I'm on the edge of a plate. But also, none of the "sticks" are completely straight, and they are not all on the same horizontal plane. Some months appear higher up than others.

Days of the week are also lined up in a circle. Wednesday occupies the most space, followed by Saturday and Sunday. So, if I am only thinking of weekdays (not dates), I see them as a circle with seven unevenly-sized squares. If I am thinking of dates, it's how I described above, with the calendar. Somehow I can reconcile the days and the dates into one form, but that is just too hard to explain.

Dude. DUDE.

I do this too, and I had no idea it had a name or was an actual thing. The weird thing is, my numbers curve almost the same way you do...but they curve to the right instead of to the left. And my months are sort of a square, with January off to the right and March basically right in front of me. You also explained it way better than I ever could.

Also my days of the week are in a sort of semicircle...it makes it really hard for me to have off days which aren't Saturday and Sunday (which I do most weeks), because I literally cannot visualize other days being a weekend.

I never thought of designing a calendar to match what I see in my head. And now I want to. This is going to sound weird, but I think you made my whole day when I saw that this was something real. LOL

madamerwin

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

kimmiinthemitten

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

I don't think this is crazy, I think it's fucking amazing!

crowsgirl15

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

I'm literally going down a hole right now with this, lol. I just drew mine out for my scientist roommate because he was curious, and now I hope he thinks its cool not crazy haha! And, yeah, it's definitely been something I've done since I was a kid. I always thought it was just some sort of pneumonic device I came up with as a kid that stuck with me...but this explains it so much better.

And, for the record, I think it's damn cool too.

thisismynickname2

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

This is so interesting. And to the bolded- remember flash cards as a kid? That's how I think about numbers aside from rote memorization. I only see in my head exactly what's being asked of me (like, "what's 11 plus 14?" looks like 11 written above 14 so you can add the 1 and 4, put 5 below the line, then add 1 and 1, putting 2 below the line, with 25 being the result). A calendar looks exactly like a standard calendar- a grid like you buy in the store. 

kylexo

i have a weird 6th sense regarding directions. if i've been somewhere once, i can get you back there years later. i can also always tell you which direction i'm facing. i recently had an argument about a gas station we'd stopped at on our last road trip with DH, and i was telling him "no, that gas station with the subway's facade faced south and the gas station you're thinking about had an east facing facade, so you're confusing the two" and he just looked at me like i was nuts that i'd know such a thing. you can even put a blindfold on me and spin me around and i'll still know where north is. i'm like a human compass.

WinstonsGirl

This number in the head thing is so cool.  I can't visualize anything in my head. Ever.  All I see is darkness, which the same floaters I see in my eyes when they're open

I don't have a cell phone.  Apparently that's not normal anymore.  

madamerwin

thisismynickname said:

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

This is so interesting. And to the bolded- remember flash cards as a kid? That's how I think about numbers aside from rote memorization. I only see in my head exactly what's being asked of me (like, "what's 11 plus 14?" looks like 11 written above 14 so you can add the 1 and 4, put 5 below the line, then add 1 and 1, putting 2 below the line, with 25 being the result). A calendar looks exactly like a standard calendar- a grid like you buy in the store. 

When I think of 11 + 14, I imagine being on 11, then I just zoom along a curved line up to the left to 25. With larger numbers, say, 234 + 177, I move in chunks - from 234 to 334 (+100), then 334 to 404 (+70), then 404 to 411 (+7). 

Thinking about how people think fascinates me. So meta.

bleve0821

short+sassy said:

MissKittyDanger said:

short+sassy said:

On the other side of the coin, as a little kid (3-6 years), I wondered why what was "normal" for everyone else was not normal for me.  Specifically with weather.

I lived in So. CA and waited every year for the birds to "fly South for the winter".  And for the leaves to turn all the pretty shades like they do in my books.  I waited for snow that never came.  All this stuff happened in my books and cartoons, but I never saw any of it.  At the time, it was confusing, lol. 

I'm oddly envious. I live in Canada, and there are parts that get more snow than others.
Every fall I see birds leave and I yell "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE US!! IT'S TOO EARLY!"

Then we get windchill of -40 so don't wish for snow. Lol

(Shamefaced) I still wish for snow though, as an adult, I'm glad I don't live in it.  Where I grew up, according to historical records, it snowed once in the 1890s during some freak weather phenomenon.

However, where I live now in NOLA, it's a bit colder and we will have a day with some snow about every 5-8 years.  Though, right now, we are on an 11-12 year streak with none.

When it does snow here, it's hilarious!  And magical, because it is so rare.  You'll see grown men in their stuffy suits interrupt their work to go outside and throw snowballs at each other.  It's like everyone turns into a 5-year-old child for a brief period of time (in a good way) and just stares with wonder out the window and/or goes outside to play.

The last time it happened, the snowfall was for a few hours in the morning, but was already melting by midday and totally gone when I left for work at 5PM.  Except for the snowmen people had built in their front yards.  So, there would be these lush, green grass front yards...with a snowman so incongruously (sp?) in the middle of them, lol. 

It snowed the year I graduated from Tulane.  My roommate was from Lake Charles, and she had never seen it before, and she burst into my room like a kid on Christmas morning. I was like, "GTFO, it's too early," but she was all, "BUT SNOW!!!!!"  It was like maybe 3" of the wettest snow I'd ever seen, gone without a trace by lunch time, but it may have been the most magical experience of my life.  I knew snow in NOLA was rare, but it hadn't occurred to me that there were people (locals) who actually HADN'T seen snow before EVER, and when I saw her face when I taught her how to make a snowman... it was easily the best moment of senior year.

But I'm from the northeast, so it was very eye-opening for me to actually understand what it's like to go your whole life and never see snow.  Knowing and understanding are two very different things, and I got a great lesson on the difference that day.

banana468

Does anyone else feel nauseated right before a sneeze?

bleve0821

Apparently, it's not normal to perpetually mix up left and right.  In my head, I know left from right, but somewhere between my brain and the rest of me, it gets lost and I can't get it straight.  Ever.  I know the difference, I swear I do.  Even when I do that finger trick I still can't execute it.

I'll tell people to "go right" when I mean "go left", and people will tell me to "go right" and I'll go left (like, today, when a few co-workers and I went to lunch.  They had a good laugh at my expense).

But until very recently, I never thought it was weird that I do this.

OurWildKingdom

kylexo said:

i have a weird 6th sense regarding directions. if i've been somewhere once, i can get you back there years later. i can also always tell you which direction i'm facing. i recently had an argument about a gas station we'd stopped at on our last road trip with DH, and i was telling him "no, that gas station with the subway's facade faced south and the gas station you're thinking about had an east facing facade, so you're confusing the two" and he just looked at me like i was nuts that i'd know such a thing. you can even put a blindfold on me and spin me around and i'll still know where north is. i'm like a human compass.

One of my cousins (an architect) has the same kind of memory for places. I envy her.

kvruns

kylexo said:

i have a weird 6th sense regarding directions. if i've been somewhere once, i can get you back there years later. i can also always tell you which direction i'm facing. i recently had an argument about a gas station we'd stopped at on our last road trip with DH, and i was telling him "no, that gas station with the subway's facade faced south and the gas station you're thinking about had an east facing facade, so you're confusing the two" and he just looked at me like i was nuts that i'd know such a thing. you can even put a blindfold on me and spin me around and i'll still know where north is. i'm like a human compass.

my dad is like that, we call him the human atlas or human map. He'll remember some place 30 years later. I don't know if he does the same about directions as you though, that's pretty cool.  I feel like I'm pretty decent if I've driven somewhere before I can find my way back almost all the time but still not as good as my dad (and now with maps on smartphones and the garmin before that I'm probably not as good as before)

kvruns

WinstonsGirl said:

This number in the head thing is so cool.  I can't visualize anything in my head. Ever.  All I see is darkness, which the same floaters I see in my eyes when they're open

I don't have a cell phone.  Apparently that's not normal anymore.  

ok good to know because I've started getting worry about all these people saying they visualize this and that and I'm thinking I do math in my head pretty well but I never actually see anything

MissKittyDanger

kylexo said:

i have a weird 6th sense regarding directions. if i've been somewhere once, i can get you back there years later. i can also always tell you which direction i'm facing. i recently had an argument about a gas station we'd stopped at on our last road trip with DH, and i was telling him "no, that gas station with the subway's facade faced south and the gas station you're thinking about had an east facing facade, so you're confusing the two" and he just looked at me like i was nuts that i'd know such a thing. you can even put a blindfold on me and spin me around and i'll still know where north is. i'm like a human compass.

My H's friend is like this. A few years ago a couple of us went to Toronto, his friend had only been in the area about 5yrs prior while neither H {then BF} and I hadn't been in that area ever, H's friend knew ALL the routes! Super helpful!

huskypuppy14

thisismynickname said:

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

This is so interesting. And to the bolded- remember flash cards as a kid? That's how I think about numbers aside from rote memorization. I only see in my head exactly what's being asked of me (like, "what's 11 plus 14?" looks like 11 written above 14 so you can add the 1 and 4, put 5 below the line, then add 1 and 1, putting 2 below the line, with 25 being the result). A calendar looks exactly like a standard calendar- a grid like you buy in the store. 

So I also have number synesthesia. I leaned about it about 5 years ago talking to some coworkers. I'm very good with dates too. My calendar in my head is like a clock with December and January at 7 and 6 respectively. August and July are at 12 0 clock. So the year starts around 6 and goes counterclockwise. So rift now we are at the top of clock and moving towards September. 

Similar to madamerwin, my number line is like a spiral, and I visualize myself in that number. 

MCmeow

I found out I have epilepsy when I was 20 (not the shaky kind, I can't even tell I have epilepsy unless I could look at my brain while it happens). So starting in the first grade I would look at my teacher as she spoke and suddenly she became smaller, the room looked 2x longer and she looked as if she went further and further away. I also felt like I can kinda control it. It gave me an eye-ache so I thought I was doing some eye trick like crossing my eyes so I thought it was normal and anyone can do it! I'm guessing whenever I brought it up people thought I meant eye-crossing, so they didn't mention it's not normal.
This continued on whenever I had to deeply focus on something, that "ability" was really strong for those first two years and happened less and less until I told my neurologist (who I went to at the time solely for migraines) and he said "uh yeah that is NOT normal, you need to get an MRI".
So yup, it's an epileptic thing, it has a cool name though: Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Happens very rarely now, but it's very strange when it happens, I'm still able to listen to the person for the most part, I went through my first job interview in college while going through this, it gives an extra weird feeling of knowing the figure is far away but still thinking you're close enough to touch it, all sense of perspective is lost.

The number thing is really cool^ I sort of have a dumbed down version, I see each number as a fuzzy shape at a much more linear path but at every tenth number the shape bumps up.

oh! Also throughout my life whenever I squeeze a certain part of my wrists my vein would show a prominent bubble, kinda like how guys veins bulge on their hands, mine bulges on that one tiny spot. I thought anyone could do it but it freaks out everyone I show it to.

madamerwin

huskypuppy14 said:

thisismynickname said:

madamerwin said:

@crowsgirl15 - The only reason I CAN explain it so well is because, when my dad found out about it, he made me draw it all out for him. And it's fun telling people about it, because they think I'm crazy. But I never knew it was abnormal, and I don't remember ever not thinking this way.

If you Google "number-form synesthesia" and look at the image results, it's uncanny how similarly different people envision numbers; not exactly the same, but really similar patterns. And it's generally something that develops as soon as the concept of "numbers" forms in young children, and it remains unchanged over a lifetime (which is definitely true in my case). I think it's pretty cool, and I actually don't understand how most people think about numbers. (Do they just see whatever number in their head? Is the date just written in plain letters and numbers? It's a mystery to me.)

This is so interesting. And to the bolded- remember flash cards as a kid? That's how I think about numbers aside from rote memorization. I only see in my head exactly what's being asked of me (like, "what's 11 plus 14?" looks like 11 written above 14 so you can add the 1 and 4, put 5 below the line, then add 1 and 1, putting 2 below the line, with 25 being the result). A calendar looks exactly like a standard calendar- a grid like you buy in the store. 

So I also have number synesthesia. I leaned about it about 5 years ago talking to some coworkers. I'm very good with dates too. My calendar in my head is like a clock with December and January at 7 and 6 respectively. August and July are at 12 0 clock. So the year starts around 6 and goes counterclockwise. So rift now we are at the top of clock and moving towards September. 

Similar to madamerwin, my number line is like a spiral, and I visualize myself in that number. 

This is funny, because if you look at my calendar from "above," December is at 6 o'clock, and January is at 7 o'clock. But April and May are at 12, and August is at 4 (goes clockwise starting at 6).

I like hearing that other people think this way too!