A Startling Discovery: I Have Synesthesia Too!

When my article "Living with Synesthesia, a Sensory Disorder" published, I asked Carrie to read it. She made it to the third paragraph, where Natasha began to describe her form of synesthesia, and Carrie stopped reading. "Wait a minute," she said. "Why wouldn't things translate into colors?" Carrie, a 42-year-old mother of three, discovered she has synesthesia too.

We continued to talk about the synesthesia article. She went back and finished reading the first page, where Natasha talked about her grapheme -> color synesthesia, which affects the days of the week and the numbers. "All of my days of the week are colors, always the same color for the same day. I see numbers that way too," Carrie exclaimed. "For instance, Monday is brown, and so is the number 8. Five is black. Tuesday is yellow and Wednesday is green."

Carrie was very confused about this, as she had seen the colors her whole life and never realized it was any different. She began to question me. "But how is this a disorder? How do others see it? What do they see?"

I explained to her that most people don't see colors associated with numbers, letters or days of the week. I told her that when I picture the word 'Monday', it's always black on white, as are the rest of the days of the week. Numbers are always black on white too. She replied, "That's it?"

Reading on, Carrie discovered she sees music in a very similar manner as Natasha does, which is typical of sound -> color synesthesia. I told her most people don't see colors when they hear music, so she asked me what I see. I responded that since I was a musician, sometimes I see notes on a page, but they are always stationary and always black. "I see notes too, but they are colored and sort of moving happily," Carrie said.

I was interested to know if synesthesia was hereditary. When Carrie finished reading my synesthesia article, she ran to ask her children if they too saw in color. Her children looked at her and answered, "Of course!" They were very excited to realize they were special and not every person sees in color the way they do.

Carrie's 16-year-old daughter Chloe immediately began telling her mom that three is red, four is black, and so on. Carrie reported that Chloe sees colors with numbers, letters, and days of week. "She also sees certain words in color, such as names," Carrie said, pausing for a moment. "That's true for me too, now that I think about it." For instance, Carrie recalled she also sees months of the year in color. However, Chloe's colors are different from her mother's colors.

When Carrie asked the children about music, her 10-year-old son David leaped off the floor from where he was lying and shouted, "Yes! Always!" His eyes were huge as he listened to his mother describe the colors she saw with her synesthesia.

Both her older children have grapheme -> color synesthesia and sound -> color synesthesia. David sees colors with letters and numbers, and Chloe sees colors with music. Carrie's seven-year-old son, Josh, didn't answer. Carrie speculated that perhaps he didn't understand the questions.

Upon further reading, Carrie realized she also has number form synesthesia (also called spatial-sequence synesthesia), in which numbers, like dates, have a specific location in space. "It's hard to explain. I never see anything flat. Things are either close or far, and sometimes behind each other. The only thing that is right here is 'today'. Numbers, days, months, dates, and years go... out," Carrie explained. "For instance, if I wanted to see 1960, I have to reach for it. I don't think about it, and it doesn't take any time, but it's not right here. It's sort of filed and far. It's way down there, and I can see it far away before I get it. Reaching for it and having it are instantaneous. I don't think about it."

Another form of synesthesia Carrie experiences is ordinal-linguistic personification, or OLP for short. People with OLP give personification to letters and numbers. They assign specific personalities. For example, a person with OLP may say 'The letter R is ferocious, and C is soft and warm.' Carrie said her letters and numbers all have personality. "Or moods, I would say. I do that all the time, but I'm not sure if it has to do with the colors (of each letter and number). The colors have moods too," she said.

Having only found out she and her family have synesthesia was pretty overwhelming for Carrie. The children were very hyper, and they clamored to know more about synesthesia. Carrie herself was amazed and perplexed. Carrie's mother, who doesn't have synesthesia, was confused and concerned for her daughter and her family.

But Carrie just laughed. "I think the people who don't see the colors have the disorder, and we are normal!"