spatial-sequence synaesthesia

Synaestesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway... In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise).

I had no idea this was a documented condition but it's something I've done for as long as I can remember. Both the days of the week and the months of the year are arranged on a map in my brain and that's how I think of them. The weekdays are simpler - they're just in a line; the months, however, are in a complicated upside-down, counterclockwise oblong pattern. January starts at the bottom on the right and then progresses upwards and then curves to the left, ending with December tailgating the following January.

It could get frustating because someone would mention making plans in March and I would immediately think it was far away - even in the middle of February.

A few other descriptions have a ring of truth to them in my brain as well and I'm totally blown away that this happens to other people - enough so that they named and study it.

I'm even more of a freak that originally thought.


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