Synethesia And Dysautonomia?

[Kitsakatsa]

I was just speaking with my mother and we were talking about baby names. I told her that I like my name because it is the right colors and I was shocked when she had no idea what I was talking about. We then started talking about numbers and she had said that to her, numbers do not have a map. So I do the whole google thing to see if I was schizo, and I came across a couple articles about a thing called Synesthesia. Synesthesia is apparently an autustic-linked neurological gift where a person can see colors in taste, sounds, or words. They also make maps out of numbers. Depending on which article I viewed, it was either thought to be a higher form of intellect, or a form of brain damage (great.)

My question is this: how many of us with POTS also have synesthesia?

It means that there are connections between the senses that normally don't exist- senses, great- but how many of you are like me see colors exagerated when you get sick have to shut down all sensory things like sound to keep from having a full out panic attack?

Kits

[futurehope]

Wow, that's interesting. Not me. I don't have that gift.

[persephone]

I have gustatory synaesthesia which means every word I read or hear has a taste attached. For real.

[DESPERATE DEB]

I was just speaking with my mother and we were talking about baby names. I told her that I like my name because it is the right colors and I was shocked when she had no idea what I was talking about. We then started talking about numbers and she had said that to her, numbers do not have a map. So I do the whole google thing to see if I was schizo, and I came across a couple articles about a thing called Synesthesia. Synesthesia is apparently an autustic-linked neurological gift where a person can see colors in taste, sounds, or words. They also make maps out of numbers. Depending on which article I viewed, it was either thought to be a higher form of intellect, or a form of brain damage (great.)

My question is this: how many of us with POTS also have synesthesia?

It means that there are connections between the senses that normally don't exist- senses, great- but how many of you are like me see colors exagerated when you get sick have to shut down all sensory things like sound to keep from having a full out panic attack?

Kits

How strange, because I was watching a programme the other day, I think it was on The One Show, and it was so interesting. This lady had synesthesia and actually did paintings from listening to sounds. They were the most beautiful paintings. She was saying that the sound of her new baby crying produced yellow lines. It was really interesting. I still don't know if I have POTS as I am still waiting to be referred but just thought I'd mention what I'd seen. I had never heard of it before that. I hadn't realised that it could cause so many problems also.

Take care.

Deb

[persephone]

It doesn't cause problems. It's just the way you're made- you either have it or you don't. I'm also not sure about the autistic links either. I don't think that's been proven. I know a few people with it here at Oxford- it was a medical student friend of mine (with it) who explained it to me. Until that point, I thought everyone was like me and tasted their words. Every name, every word conjurs up a taste to me.

My brother is salt and vinegar flavour crisps (potato chips)

My mum is a fig roll biscuit!

My D.Phil (PhD) is a piece of seaside-rock with pink and green colours

And the word POTS is beautifully rich, dark, melted chocolate. If only the real life experience of the disease was so pleasant in stead of so soul destroying...

[jump]

I actually think more people have a mild form of this than is realized.

I don't think I know anyone who doesn't associate words with colors, or sounds with colors, or map numbers, or ANYTHING. I can imagine that extreme forms of this might be linked to autism, but it seems like everyone I know does this at least to some extent.

[futurehope]

Jump,

I don't associate words and sounds with color. As a matter of fact, I had never heard of this gift until the original posting.

[bjt22]

Hmmm....could you explain the number mapping? I'm a mapper, period. It's like a have a great big grid work in my brain. I see everything, all the time, in relation to everything else. I'm fascinated by all kinds of maps...I can look for hours at a map, just seeing and absorbing where everything is in relationship to everything else.

[jump]

This is fascinating! I had no idea that this wasn't universal until just now. I just took a very extensive synethesia quiz on-line, and scored very highly for synethesia. Then I made some of my friends and family take it and their scores were so different from mine, and indicated no synethesia at all. Who knew! I really had no idea it wasn't universal so associate letters with colors, etc.

However, I'm skeptical about a link to POTS, only because I've always had synethesia, and I only developed POTS after an illness.

Although curiously, my two friends who scored high on the synethesia quiz also scored high on an autism quiz. We laughed when we all scored so high on autism - none of us are autistic, so we thought the quiz was screwy - but now I think it's kind of weird that all three of us scored high on both.

[masumeh]

Synesthesia is soo cool! It's interesting to discourse with people who actually have it. We studied it as a phenomena in sense and perception class (psychology). It's not a disease, it's a different type of wiring in the brain. Your senses are linked, whereas most people's are separated. It's such a different and interesting way of experiencing the world. Very cool, very. Artists who've tried to protray their synesthetic experience give us a different outlook and a great insight into another way of feeling about things--literally. I think it's interesting that you've gone so far in life without realizing that it's different from the norm. I know that happens with some other types of sensory abnormalities, like color blindness, many people just think everybody sees that way. If there is a link to POTS I would be really surprised. But there's nothing really to prove or disprove that I guess. It would be an interesting research question for some med student.

[sue1234]

Persephone,

I find that your "perception" of POTS as "beautifully rich, dark, melted chocolate" fascinating, and let me explain why. I have always read alot over the years on vitamins and minerals, and their role in health/disease.

For those with EDS, having a collagen "defect", I have always wondered if it was a copper issue, as copper is a mineral that is very closely linked to collagen. To further understand this, copper is highly associated with estrogen, and when we go into menopause and lose that estrogen, our skin loses its youthfulness.

And, you see POTS related to dark chocolate--guess what chocolate is FULL of?!? COPPER!

Interesting.

[Kitsakatsa]

Hmmm....could you explain the number mapping? I'm a mapper, period. It's like a have a great big grid work in my brain. I see everything, all the time, in relation to everything else. I'm fascinated by all kinds of maps...I can look for hours at a map, just seeing and absorbing where everything is in relationship to everything else.

You might have it then. The mapping is my strongest. When you picture a person age 10, do you imagine age 10 in relation to all the other numbers, like are you seeing 10 in the total line up? Now imagine age 30. Are you seeing the total line up of the ages 1-30 or beyond? Where is the person age 10 in relation to the person age 30? Okay, when you imagine age 100, where do they sit? Can you see all the numbers 1-100 in your mind and here is the most important question- is this a shape?

I'm pretty freaked out about not everyone seeing this in a map. My age map runs from south to north, back to south, back to north, etc by decade of age. Except, it does not turn south until 30. After 100, it turns west those numbers go to 900 (Moses). My age map is vastly different than my money numbers map. I also have a different map for the months of the year. The money numbers map is more organized, but more complex. I guess this explains why the only math that I can do is sale rack math!

Despite the maps, I have an almost severe learning deficit in algebra but I can calculate like lightening. My last few brain MRIs have said that my pariental region is shrinking quicker than it should. The only "beautiful mind" experience I've had is that when I worked in genetic research, we would have the conference room tables full of pedigree charts with kindred numbers all in micro font. Thousands of people, hundreds and hundreds of kindreds. When they said they needed to find a certain kindred number, I could locate it within seconds and the person number simultaneously. I would just scan the table and my eyes would focus on their own right on the numbers. I just thought it was a cool party trick. Didn't really think it was an official thing that had a name.

I was hoping that more of us had this. I am always hoping to find out what has caused my POTS.

Kits

[mvdula]

This is interesting. I don't think I have this, but I do picture my numbers (and days of the week, and months of the year) in a certain map format and have always wondered about that. Other people seem to have more of the standard numberline above the blackboard map. Mine goes 0-10 E-W, then jogs N to 11, E to 12, then N to 20, then E to 30, then N to 100, then all the way back S again to start over. So basically it runs E to W, backwards......days of week are backwards too w/ M-F in a half circle counter-clockwise, then Sat-Sun joining them vertically on the right. I always thought everyone did this....do they? I don't have any special math talents though - my 5th grader (8th grade math) has surpassed me easily...

[poppetkazutaka]

I can see music and I attribute personalities to numbers. :3 I don't like 5 much. I like even numbers more than odd numbers. They're nicer, and that's usually why I round when I pay bills. When I listen to music, I see colors and I sometimes get so into it I have to be careful because I can really lose myself! XD It's why I like all kinds of music except for a lot of hard metal music, because the colors aren't right.

Some of it is okay...

But yeah. I'm slightly that way myself. I think it's higher brain function. I can also look at something and I feel how it feels on my palm. I see feeling, because I know how it feels so I translate sight as touch.

It's just that the senses are so closely wired that they overlap. Sight and hearing, sight and feeling...etc...

EDIT: I forgot about the map thing. I do that, too. XD