Just a Moment - The Aphant and The Now

 In the post Times Past and Times Future we spoke about how the limited ability to visualise the past or the future led to the Aphant potentially ‘living in the moment’. Superficially ‘living in the moment’ sounds quite attractive not dissimilar to ‘living for the moment’, that heady rush of being exhilarated by and having a heightened sense of the now, enjoying every breath “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven” and all that. The Aphant though is perhaps more caught in the moment than living for it as in the absence of the cushion of visualisation the Aphant is forever in the bright headlights of the now. 

 Thoughts and ideas will pop into the Aphant’s mind sometimes fast and furiously. Unaccompanied, mediated or delayed by any accompanying visual images this rat-a-tat-tat of ideas means the Aphant can often think and respond faster than the visualiser. In certain situations like for example a quick-fire quiz round or a brain storming session this can be an advantage and the Aphant can all but give themselves up to the moment letting ideas pass unimpeded from brain to mouth. The danger - you’ve guessed it - is that without the image buffer this turbocharged thinking out loud can have unintended consequences. The Aphant will inevitably on occasion say things they shouldn’t and more often will upset the unwritten etiquette of conversation if only slightly and it doesn’t take much to unsettle your average visualiser. The older Aphant will having put their foot in it a number of times be aware of the need to think before you speak but will struggle to find a happy medium between full on speech and silence, the buffer just isn’t there to hold on to thoughts and ideas till the right moment.

 

The bottleneck of being in the moment and the lack of forward vision will often make our Aphant impulsive, and foolhardy. This last aspect may catch people off guard as they see what appears to be an otherwise perfectly logical and rational person acting in ways that would not seem to be in their best interests. 

 

In terms of attention the Aphant can be productively locked into the moment and thus bring a laser like focus to tasks over sustained periods of time. Afterwards they can often all but disassociate themselves from what they have just spent many hours on. The moment has moved on to the next thing. The project they have been working on previously could almost have been by somebody else so disassociated do they feel from it and their role in it.  When not focussed on a task the Aphant will be in search of focus or rather distraction, something/anything to take one’s mind off the moment. Again distraction can have its dangers “Distraction he wanted, to destruction he fell. Now he forever stalks the ancient Mansions of hell” as Marc Bolan sang shortly before his death.  

      

If all this sounds familiar it is because it what is being described is not dissimilar to the symptoms of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD has in recent years generated a whole industry of diagnosis and associated treatments and medication without any clear evidence as yet to its likely causes. There are some sceptics who suggest that ADHD is nothing more than youthful boisterousness and Just William were he around today would probably be diagnosed with ADHD. Is it possible that some or even many of those diagnosed with ADHD are in fact Aphants?