Seeking tips for study in a field you cannot immerse in due to SDAM
Hey Gang, hopefully not just rehashing existing questions.
Nearing 50 and have gone back to school a few months ago. I’m loving most of it. I am learning psychotherapy and hypnotherapy.
A lot of the “hands on” therapy we are learning involves reliving experiences, putting yourself back in the experience and noticing things to work out how to help yourself. I spoke with a lecturer to try this out myself to help with generalised anxiety about coming to class. He asked how it felt when I was anxious and to describe it, how did my chest feel, what was my breathing like? I stared blankly. I gave him some dot points. I had anxiety. I probably wanted to throw up and run away. That’s all the recollection I have.
I found out through school I may have Aphantasia, visualising things for hypnosis is not possible however I am doing my best to get around it. I am yet to successfully achieve a hypnotic state myself. A post on the Aphantasia subreddit lead me here and it’s been super eye opening and aligning to my experience. Perhaps SDAM is in play for me, perhaps not. I’d always assumed I just had very poor recall.
I guess my question is for anyone who has successfully studied in a field that they cannot immerse in due to SDAM, what strategies did you use to adapt? I’m struggling; I’ve spent the whole day avoiding the learning content. I’m a very kinaesthetic learner. My past career was successful in very niche computer programming, super hands on.
Have just sourced Outsmart Your Brain by Willingham so we read that when I can.
Any replies would be wonderful, thank you; I appreciate your time 😄