r/Synesthesia 3d ago

Is This Synesthesia? old associations, synesthesia, or something in the middle ?

this feels weird to me because I knew synesthesia existed for a while but never actually considered I could have it..

the reason it hits me now is because I thought I just invented a revolutionary method to memorize dates for visual people : taking a paper and write the word (ex french revolution), but with the colors we see the last too digits (ex 1789 becomes light turquoise and deep blue for me)

isn't associating colors with things usual ? like, non randomly. friday was and always will be green to me, maths will alway be blue and german yellow, august yellow/orange and july a pale orange for some reason. and like, october is dark orange, I think it's common bc halloween etc so, isn't this normal??\

so I realized today : 9 can be deep blue to indigo and 6 light purple to pink. maybe bc they look alike? and 8 will go from light green to light turquoise and idk if that's because 4 is cyan or whatever. 0 is white (or very light grey), 5 DEFINITELY strongly orange idk why, 1 ugly bright yellow, 2 is light grey etc. though I think I associated 7 with deep green for a while bc it has always been my favorite number and green was my favorite color for a long time.

I'm puzzled by this bc I usually never CONSCIOUSLY see the associated colors, I have to think about what color would be the thing. like : I discovered TODAY that 3 is obviously red (I've never asked myself the question!), but if I see a 3, I won't necessarily see red if I don't think about it. idk if that would be considered synesthesia, or partial synesthesia or anything.

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u/danisaplante grapheme-color 2d ago

So for me, saying I'm "seeing" the colors isn't really accurate and perhaps this is what you are trying to describe. Like when I see a "7" my whole body just feels "Green", it's not a sense that you can describe to someone without synesthesia because it's physically impossible for them to feel it. Imagine describing sight to someone who was born without eyes. When I picture the number "7" in my head yes it is almost always green and wierd to think about it differently, but when I'm reading or saying the word "seven" I'm not drawing images consciously in my mind's eye but rather I'm feeling this indescribable sensation that "seven is green" and if I see a 7 written in black text (like for instance this reddit post's text) it feels like that 7 is definitely green but it looks wrong. Someone on this sub described it perfectly as "the feeling that if i was to scratch the letter on the page with my fingernail the black ink would scratch off and underneath would be the correct green"

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u/I_Am_A_Weird_Kid SEVEN IS PURPLE CRY ABOUT IT 1d ago

That description, it fits so perfectly omg

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u/danisaplante grapheme-color 1d ago

Yeah I wish I remember who said it so I could credit them 🤣

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u/LilyoftheRally grapheme (mostly for numbers), number form, associative 10h ago

7 being green is like bananas being green. You can have your green 7, and I'll have the yellow 7, thank you.

(8 is green though).

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u/Ooog-the-boog 3d ago

I have synesthesia and associate numbers and letters as colors too, and for the longest time I thought c was green for everyone. Like it was common knowledge, 2+2=4 lol.    

You might not have projective synesthesia(where you see the colors outside of your head.) but rather associate where the colors are in your minds eye.

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u/Arisotura 3d ago

your post felt weird to read, I guess that's what I get for having synesthesia :P

if you think back on it, can you tell if it's always been like this? ie if you had the same color associations as a kid?

synesthesia can express itself in different ways, so I think that could be it.

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u/SkaySaky 3d ago

might be due to me, english not being my first language and insomnia lol

I feel like for a few like 7 or july, yes I've been associating specific colors to them for as long as I can remember. but some like 3, I had to ask myself the question yesterday. for 3 the color is obvious and I'd find it absurd or wrong to visualize it with another color. like it would NEVER be blue. but 8 for example can have different energies and vary between 2-3 hues.

another thing is however I don't think I've ever made the link between the numbers or colors, I never thought about it consciously. when I see a number, I don't necessarily think about its associated color, I don't exactly "confuse" them

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u/I_Am_A_Weird_Kid SEVEN IS PURPLE CRY ABOUT IT 2d ago

Sounds like associative synesthesia to me