Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Synesthesia And Autism DO YOU See Days Of the Week In Colour (SUPER INTERESTING)
Transcript
- 0:00So synesthesia and autism. Do you see days of the week as
- 0:03colour? All this and more.
- 0:06It's coming up. Hey guys, welcome back to the
- 0:15app Speed World. My name is Dan, I have autism,
- 0:17ADHD, OCD and dyslexia. And I make weekly videos all
- 0:21about this kind of stuff. So if you're new around here and
- 0:24you'd like to learn more, remember to hit that subscribe
- 0:26button by clicking the notification bell down below.
- 0:29If you're watching on Facebook, for sure to follow this page.
- 0:30And if you're watching on Instagram, make sure to follow
- 0:32this account for more autism. Awesome concept.
- 0:35Boom, guys, What's going on? Welcome back to the apps we will
- 0:37the place where we think differently daily.
- 0:39What's going on? My different Thinker Fam guys,
- 0:42what is going on? If you haven't already, make
- 0:45sure to download my free Autism Life Hacks PDF book at
- 0:48autismhacks.net. So today I'm discussing
- 0:51Synesthesia and autism. Now synesthesia is something
- 0:54that I came across whilst well, two things happened actually.
- 0:57The first time I came across synesthesia was when I was
- 1:01researching Kanye West. The first time I came across
- 1:04synesthesia, I was researching Kanye West because he did an
- 1:07article, He was talking about synesthesia.
- 1:09Then the next time I heard about synesthesia, I was actually
- 1:12listening to a guy called Jeff Evans, who's quite a famous
- 1:14autism speaker. And I went to the Norton support
- 1:18group that I'm part of locally. And Jeff was speaking at this
- 1:21group, which is absolutely fantastic, and he was talking
- 1:23about synesthesia. Now, synesthesia, I'll break it
- 1:26down for you and tell you exactly what it is.
- 1:28But it was quite interesting when I first found out about it
- 1:29because then I was like, oh, that's why I do this, all that
- 1:33why I do that. So synesthesia basically is a
- 1:37neurological condition that can be diagnosed with autism but
- 1:41also can just be diagnosed on its own where you hear, you hear
- 1:45sound, but you see colour. So for instance, when I was into
- 1:50Jeff talk about the people he knew with synesthesia, he said
- 1:52that he knew a young guy that when the door slammed, then
- 1:56rather than hearing the door slamming, I could see a blue
- 1:59flash of light, which is fascinating and it really,
- 2:01really intrigued me. So then this kind of got me
- 2:03thinking, well, if people see colour when they're hearing
- 2:07sound, what kind of opportunities has opened up?
- 2:09That's why I was so intrigued when I heard about Kanye West
- 2:12and him actually having a, you know, being a musician and being
- 2:17a music producer. So if he's seeing color as
- 2:21sound, as color, then he's obviously painting a picture
- 2:24when he's producing music, which is absolutely a fascinating
- 2:26concept. And it really does kind of
- 2:28stretch the realms of the amazing neurodiverse kind of
- 2:32culture we have and all the things and the amazing things
- 2:34that people with neurodiversity can do.
- 2:36So then I thought about myself and my own experiences, right?
- 2:39And so when I was little, I used to, I used to always relate to
- 2:45everything as colours, right? So basically if I was thinking
- 2:50about the days of the week or the months in the year, I would
- 2:53think about them as colours. Now to me it's always been that
- 2:56way and I thought everybody felt like that about things.
- 2:59And it's almost like it's it's a feeling and a colour
- 3:02relationship. So when I hear like Monday or
- 3:05Tuesday, it feels a certain way that attracts a certain colour.
- 3:09And the only way I can explain this to somebody from an outside
- 3:12point of view is that you think about warm and cold, right?
- 3:16Or hot and cold they're feeling, but they also have a colour
- 3:20attached to it. You know what colour is kind of
- 3:22blue and hot is kind of red, right?
- 3:23So it's a similar kind of relationship I have with days of
- 3:26the week and the months in the year, which is really
- 3:29interesting. So I almost, it's like I
- 3:30visually see them as colour. It's really weird.
- 3:33It's such a bizarre thing to try and explain but it's definitely
- 3:36something that occurs now you know having synesthesia isn't a
- 3:41bad thing it's just something that's really interesting.
- 3:43Now the reason it's comorbid and which means basically Co
- 3:46occurring and or diagnosed with autism is because autism is a
- 3:50communication issue and it really impacts the senses.
- 3:53You know, so we have something called sensory processing
- 3:55disorder, which is a comorbid occurring with autism.
- 3:59And kind of pretty much everybody I know on the autism
- 4:01spectrum has a sensory issue. And so it kind of, if you think
- 4:04about it from that perspective, when you're having sensory data
- 4:07input from outside, be it like smells or noises or sounds, then
- 4:11you have this different way of digesting that type of decoding,
- 4:17that type of sense and then ruling that information in your
- 4:19brain. But if you're hearing certain
- 4:21things, like certain words or certain phrases or hearing
- 4:25certain noises, and those noises then become colourful, or they
- 4:28have a certain colour pattern set to them, then this is
- 4:31definitely the way that the brain is communicating that
- 4:33information to make it relatable to you as an autistic person,
- 4:36right? That it's just a fascinating
- 4:39concept. Now, I know that there are lots
- 4:41of people who definitely have synesthesia and autism, but
- 4:44there are actually a bunch of people who have synesthesia
- 4:47without any autism, which is just absolutely fascinating.
- 4:50So in terms of does synesthesia impact your daily life?
- 4:54Well, it's going to be very, very minimal because synesthesia
- 4:56again is just seeing colours when you're hearing certain
- 5:00words or when you're hearing certain sounds or if you just
- 5:03hear sounds in general and you're just seeing loads of
- 5:05flashes of color, it could cause disruption if you're driving a
- 5:09car and you know, you might have a flash of blue light if you
- 5:12hear like a horn going or something like that.
- 5:14And in terms of that, then yeah, OK, maybe synesthesia does have
- 5:17some kind of potential impact. But I find it so fascinating
- 5:21that the extent that someone can go to, they could paint you a
- 5:23picture with sound, or vice versa, paint a picture from
- 5:27sound, which is basically just a bizarre, amazing trait.
- 5:31Now, I am not blessed with the fact that when I hear noise, I
- 5:34see sound. That's not what happens.
- 5:36I do kind of. When I hear noises, I feel a
- 5:38certain way that allows me to write music because I'm a
- 5:42musician. I'm in a band called
- 5:43Straitjacket Legends. We have like a CD out in Japan,
- 5:45in America. And you know, we we create
- 5:48music. As you see, I'm the bass player
- 5:49in the band, but when I'm creating music, I'm thinking
- 5:52about patterns and I'm thinking about the ways that I can fit
- 5:54this together to make a nice kind of like a well smoothed out
- 5:57pattern. And when I listen to music, I
- 5:59can, I can feel where music should have something in the
- 6:02middle there or something changed.
- 6:03And This is why I'm able to produce music also.
- 6:05So it's kind of like I can understand that synesthesia
- 6:09would be like almost painting a picture and you're seeing this
- 6:12picture come to life. Now, another kind of unusual
- 6:16side note on synesthesia is there's a an autistic savant
- 6:19called Daniel. I can't remember his last name,
- 6:22but he's from the UK and he's a famous mathematician because he
- 6:26can speak like various languages.
- 6:28He's he's on the spectrum as well.
- 6:29So he's got a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, and he's also
- 6:32a savant to a savant syndrome. But he sees numbers as kind of
- 6:36like squishy, kind of orbs, kind of like Jelly Bean things,
- 6:41different colours and patterns on him.
- 6:42And then he puts them together and they fit inside each other.
- 6:44And that's how he does mathematics, because his brain
- 6:46doesn't cognitively function mathematically.
- 6:48It just knows. It's almost like he's just
- 6:50pulling the data in from somewhere else.
- 6:51Like he just knows that it's what the the mathematical kind
- 6:55of problem solution is. So like in his respect, I think
- 6:58like it's kind of like synesthesia where he's seeing
- 7:01object as certain things. Now if you know what I'm talking
- 7:04about, please pop it in a comment down below.
- 7:05I'd love to have that conversation and I read every
- 7:07comment. But in terms of Daniels, kind of
- 7:10there was a documentary on it. Now if you have seen it,
- 7:12definitely it was amazing. And please comment down below if
- 7:15you've seen this documentary about him and he learnt like
- 7:17Icelandish in like 7 days or something because he learns
- 7:19languages very quickly. Fascinating guy.
- 7:22Super interesting. Now guys, if you think this
- 7:24video was interesting and insightful, please share it on
- 7:26your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
- 7:28And if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and I'll see
- 7:30you in the next one. Guys, peace.