The different types of minds each one of us possess
Is there something wrong with me, or do I just act 'differently' to how others act?
The more I talk to people as to the reasons why they act and behave in certain ways, the more I am realising the differences in how each person’s mind functions.
My mind, for example, gets easily overstimulated which on the one side allows me to sit calmly in a dark and quiet room. But on the other hand, makes it difficult to concentrate in loud and very social environments, meaning that meeting new people in what seems like a normal social setting is very taxing, anxiety elevating and just an increasing sense of overwhelm.
Others, I have noticed, are the complete opposite and operate on a stimulation deficit where they actually thrive in a very social or loud and sensory overloaded environments. These people in contrast when in a quiet and dark room, and have their stimulus removed from them, actually enter into a state of depressions and increased anxiety until that moment of stimulus returns. When operating in a loud and stimulating environment though, they thrive in the chaos of various things going on around them, can keep track of various facts and actions and events happening in a social settings.
When browsing the web I also came across a few other interesting differences that might not be at the forefront of peoples minds. The first is the concept of ‘the voice inside someones head’ or simply ‘inside voice’ where one speaks to themselves internally (where they can hear their own voice inside their head) which also comes in handy when reading as well. I have the unique ability to change this voice to another voice when I am reading, having a sort of internal audiobook generator inside my head when reading a captivating fiction book.
And to no surprise there is also the group of people who don’t have this function, where the inside of their mind has no speech, or some with even no sound whatsoever. This may result in a person using other methods or parts of their brain to cope and overcome situations where it would be more useful to have this function.
The second odd brain difference I came across is what is called ‘Aphantasia’ and its when you are literally blind inside your mind. A lot of schools or literature for the students or readers benefit try and give them an example of imagining an image of sorts inside the mind, to change and distort this image to whatever is being described. It allows for people to look at an object in the real world and change its orientation, alter the initial design of the object and even simulate varying levels of physics simulations to examine how the object would change in extreme environments, and all this while sitting there just imagining it.
The person with Aphantasia at worst can only see the inside of their eye lids and at best see, very dimly, a wire mesh of what is being described. This means that things like art, design and simulation, although possible to do by this person in the physical world, may be placed with difficult challenges or develop interesting coping mechanisms to be able to output a description of something into an image.
These examples are just a few of the differences I have spotted when talking to people and discovering as I read more about how the mind works and all of its intricacies.
By examining these varying factors of the mind, I am hoping to develop better methods for people to learn and communicate with each other as I believe these are fields that we have left untouched for far too long and need to innovate drastically before we all completely isolate ourselves from one another through the many challenges we face in this modern world.
Until next time.