This brilliant video by Mica, @PonderfulYT, is as clear an explanation as you’ll find of the neurodiversity movement, neurodivergence and neurotypicality, and their relation to disability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iicSLx19pc

And it’s not just good because Boba tries to steal the show! 😻

#NeurodiversityMovement #neurodiversity #neurodiverse
#neurodivergence #neurodivergent
#neurotypicality #neurotypical
#disability #disabled

#ADHD #anxiety #aphantasia #autism #bipolar #BPD #BrainDisease #BrainInjury #cPTSD #depression #dyscalculia #dyslexia #dyspraxia #hyperphantasia #LearningDisability #OCD #PTSD #SDAM #Tourettes

‘To help make connections: name 5–7 things that interest you but aren’t in your profile, as tags so they are searchable. Then boost this post or repeat its instructions so others know to do the same.’

OK, I’ll try to choose things that aren’t in *any* of my fediverse profiles! Hmm 🤔

How about #biology, #HumanComputerInteraction, #learning, #mindfulness, #philosophy, #psychology and #UrbanDesign for starters?

Relatedly:
#accessibility #ActiveTravel #aphantasia #AutobiographicalMemory #biochemistry #BodyDoubling #CellBiology #ColourPerception #consciousness #genetics #GreenSpace #HCI #hearing #hyperphantasia #mind #neuroscience #perception #SDAM #SoftwareDesign #TransitSystems #UrbanTransit #UserExperience #vision

‘… But you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in Time. For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment. Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time, …’

So said the Time Traveller in the first chapter of HG Wells’s science fiction classic The Time Machine: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/35/pg35-images.html#:~:text=But%20you%20are%20wrong,for%20any%20length%20of%20Time

I was reminded of this when I heard Brian Levine talking about SDAM in this Aphantasia Network AMA session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvam_uoBSLc

‘In my work we always talk about the feeling of mental time travel, or re-experiencing. So I’d want to know, do you feel like you’re actually travelling back in time, like you were there?’

I wonder if the idea of ‘mental time travel’ came directly from Wells

I’m even more curious to know if that’s what it really feels like for most people: is this another one of those things I thought was a flowery metaphor but turns out to be much more real? 🤷🏻‍♀️

#SDAM #SeverelyDeficientAutobiographicalMemory #aphantasia

I was just having a discussion with @lauravivanco about aphantasia and SDAM: https://mastodon.scot/@lauravivanco/110729611947017752

I am aphantasic and have a very different kind of autobiographical memory from that of other people I’ve spoken to

But then this occurred to me:

Why should I accept Brian Levine’s 2015 (yes, 2015!) coining of the term ‘*severely deficient* autobiographical memory’ for this aspect of my neurotype?

Being Autistic, I’m pathologised by the medical model as having a ‘autism spectrum *disorder*’

And being an ADHDer, I apparently have an ‘attention *deficit* hyperactivity *disorder* (yeah, get two Ds in there, why not!)

Yet many Autistic and ADHD activists who subscribe to the social model of disability and the neurodiversity paradigm are making inroads into persuading at least some academics and clinicians to treat us as disabled, not disordered, not deficient – just a different kind of human, not humans that have gone wrong

My aphantasia/SDAM (I have a strong hunch they go together) may have strengths and weaknesses in comparison with the imaginative capacity attributed to the mythical ‘normal’ person

But because it’s out of the ordinary, it has to be called *severely deficient* by the gleeful (probably) neurotypical researcher, doesn’t it!

In 2015!

Still!

#aphantasia #SDAM #SeverelyDeficientAutobiographicalMemory #neurodiversity #SocialModelOfDisability #ActuallyAutistic #ActuallyADHD #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs

@transponderings@eldritch.cafe @lauravivanco See also:

Jul 2022 (recording from Extreme Imagination 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiFaw5RrKNQ

Sep 2022: https://aphantasia.com/article/stories/maybe-you-have-sdam/

Nov 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvam_uoBSLc

#aphantasia #SDAM #SeverelyDeficientAutobiographicalMemory #ExtremeImagination

To give an idea of what I can remember, from my "primary school", which I left ~25 years ago, I could probably describe fairly detailedly how the empty building looked with layout etc., but I can only recall a handful of "social situations" which happened there. For the situations, the best description I can give: It's like if you are shown a photo for a brief time so you have an overall idea of the situation, but very little details - and it's all a bit fuzzy. I couldn't at all describe how the people looked, but I can mostly remember who were there. I can for some of the episodes also remember there were strong emotions, though I can't really describe them - which is probably "standard" alexithymia.

So why am I talking about this on my "autism account"? While I haven't seen any data which indicate that SDAM is an autistic comorbidity (but given how little is known it's probably hard to say yet), it does greatly affect my autism discovery in not being able to look back. It also means I don't remember experiencing common autistic situations of being misunderstood etc., but I can see I have the reactions other autistic people describe e.g. with trying to preempt misunderstanding with detailed emails covering as many possible avenues for misunderstandings etc. This leads me to believe these things absolutely happen to me and my unconscious brain registered it and I "learned" from the instances - but I can't recall them.

I would like to make all this more coherent and concise, but I have been wanting to make this post for a month - so I'm posting this "introduction" now and will add more as I learn.

A huge thanks to @autism101 for talking about this on Twitter. It has made a significant impact for me to know this isn't just me, and made it easier for me to understand the impact of my memory on me.

#ActuallyAutistic #SDAM #MyExperiences

As part of my autistic discovery journey I heard many cases of people talking about how after they found out they were autistic, they looked back and in retrospect they displayed many obvious autistic traits. I never had that experience, since I realised that I simply don't remember. I have no problem remembering facts, including the events that happened and the parts I "needed", but I can't remember details of the situation. Since I never had a problem remembering things I had to remember (ignoring short term memory and general executive dysfunction here), this just wasn't anything I questioned before - but it was quite obvious now that I do remember things differently than many (most?) people. It's not something that has changed as I grew older - I just didn't think about it until recently.

A few months ago Autism-101 posted on Twitter mentioning SDAM (Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory). That was one of those lightbulb moments - I suddenly had a name which just clicked and described what I experienced. On top of SDAM people a fairly new idea, and therefore in early stages of being defined, the descriptions I have found so far of SDAM are mostly fairly academic and not too great at describing how people really experience it, so I'm not certain I have SDAM - but it fits very well.

For reference, the main SDAM academic website describes it as: Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) refers to a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective.

#ActuallyAutistic #SDAM #MyExperiences