My Strange Condition

There’s something weird about me that few people know.

I associate every number with a color. I don’t know how or when I came up with this system of numbers = colors, but it’s been in my head for as long as I can remember.

For example:
1 = white or black
2 = blue
3 = pink
4 = red or orange
5 = brown
6 = pink or black
7 = orange, red, or yellow
8 = green
9 = pink or black
10 = black or white

I know, it’s weird. And even weirder, several years ago, I began picking out my clothes to wear based on what the date was. For example, if it was the 2nd, I wore blue. If it was the 13th, I’d wear pink. I’ve since outgrown that behavior. Probably a good thing.

I also associate letters with colors. For example, did you know that the letter C is yellow? It is in my world.

Recently, I discovered that there is an actual name for this "condition." It’s called synesthesia. Wikipedia defines synesthesia as:

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.

I was fascinated! There was a name for my weird thought process!

And apparently I’m not the weirdest one. I only associate colors with numbers and letters—I don’t actually physically see the colors—but apparently some people do! I was fascinated with this quote from a fellow synesthesiest (I wonder if that’s a word?):

"'Until one day,' I said to my father, 'I realized that to make an R all I had to do was first write a P and draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line'."

Wow! People’s brains are fascinating, aren’t they?

I also discovered that there are those that experience colors in response to certain sounds…and then, the absolutely strangest ones to me, those who experience particular tastes in their mouths, when hearing or reading certain sounds! Can you imagine what that must be like?

But me? I’m just a regular ole’ number-letter-color associator.

And guess what? I’ve recently discovered that both Iwanski and Buck (see my blog links above, at right) experience a similar phenomenon! Iwanski associates a gender with each letter and number (yes, folks—the letter K is a female!), and Buck, like me, associates colors with numbers and letters.

I guess great minds think alike, huh?

Or maybe we’re just a bunch of mental patients.