What is Synesthesia?

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which an individual’s brain has created extra pathways that connect two or more of the five senses. For example one might see colors when hearing sounds or feel a prickling sensation when they eat mustard. Synesthetic experiences can take almost any form, and encompass any combination of the senses. One of the most common synesthetic experiences is associating colors with numbers and/or letters.

My Expressions

My form of synesthesia is based on color and texture. My alphabet and numbers are colored. Music and regular sounds have both color and texture, and even pain has specific colors. The one problem with Synesthesia is that you don’t realize it’s unique until someone else says they don’t have it, which is what happened to me when I was about twelve. My family and I were sitting on our deck in the summer and my mom had just read an article about synesthesia in National Geographic and she asked if any of us had synesthetic symptoms. This question surprised me. Until that moment, I thought everyone saw the world the way I did. It never occurred to me that no one else thought stubbing a toe was bright white. My sister is also Synesthetic and we enjoy having friendly arguments on whether the word "architecture" is brick colored or not (for me it is). No one else in my family has synesthesia, even though studies show that synethesia is partially genetic.

Here is a Video of what my synesthesia is like...

Resources

Here is a really good video that explains all about Synesthesia!...

Here are some great websites with tests and information about Synesthesia...