Synesthesia overlap

Aphants describing how synesthesia coexists with their missing visual imagery — sometimes muted, sometimes a strange substitute, often a surprise.

What people actually say

"Yes, you can have both"

The most common note in the sub-theme is people correcting the misconception that synesthesia and aphantasia are opposites, and confirming the overlap is real even if rare.

"Synesthesia is so interesting! I’m not sure it’s really quite the opposite of aphantasia though, because aphantasia is technically the absence of an ability to voluntarily visualise. My understanding is the synesthesia is involuntary so it might technically be possible to have both (plus there are non-visual types of synesthesia)" 2021 · t1_guw9qcv ↗

"i have aphantasia as well as projective synesthesia. the opposite of aphantasia would be hyperphantasia" 2021 · t1_gux5gbt ↗

"I have aphantasia but I definitely don't have synesthesia." 2018 · t1_dtkh8yu ↗

Associative, not projected — colours that are "kind of dimmed"

When aphants describe their own synesthesia, they almost always reach for the associative-vs-projected distinction, and report colours/shapes they "know" rather than "see."

"People with both aphantasia and synesthesia almost always have the associative type of synesthesia." 2022 · t1_iixg60b ↗

"I have grapheme color synesthesia (see letters, numbers, days of the week, etc. as colors) but since I also have aphantasia the colors are kind of dimmed. Like I can see the colors but I can describe them and on different days things can be different colors, but some never change." 2025 · t1_nvb9g0f ↗

"I am a full aphant, with my synesthesia my brain makes associations but I know or think it, rather than see it. Like pee and some brand of bbq chips smell yellow. Wintergreen is pink" 2023 · t1_ka8chxk ↗

"Oh the usual, just these \"shapes\" of people acting out whatever I'm e.g. reading about." 2025 · t1_nv7z6qn ↗

Synesthesia as a substitute or "black-on-black" puzzle

Some posters describe their synesthesia partially compensating for missing visuals; others wrestle with whether what they experience even counts when imagery is absent.

"Maybe you have both aphantasia and synesthesia, and although you can't visualize the intended thing on command, your synesthesia provides an alternative visualization associated with the word?" 2021 · t1_hfnipq5 ↗

"Sounds like your synesthesia is helping out your aphantasia!" 2020 · t1_ggwehb0 ↗

"I had never heard of synesthesia until tonight. I don’t know if mine counts as synesthesia or not, my visuals are black-on-black due to the aphantasia, if that makes sense…" 2026 · t1_o0fbwij ↗

Across the years

The discussion is steady from 2016 onward, with thin early years (1 chunk in 2016, 2 in 2018–2019) and a clear uptick from 2021 onward as dedicated threads ("AMA", "what kind of synesthesia do you have?") and even a spinoff community (r/aphantsynesthete in 2024) appear. The substance barely shifts: the same three beats — "yes it can co-occur," "mine is associative," "it's like knowing colours rather than seeing them" — recur in 2018, 2022, and 2025 alike. What grows over time is recognition rather than insight.

Volume

Cross-references

• Related sub-theme: themes/sensory_substitutes.md (only if relevant)