“A 31-year-old healthy male presented with visual equity changes during orgasm. In addition, he described a colour-pain sensation every time he experienced severe chest pain during his childhood. None of these sensations negatively affected his daily or sexual life,” the three authors – behavioural science researchers and psychiatry experts at the University of Mashhad – wrote in the case study.
“He stated that during his orgasms, he experienced visual equity changes whenever his eyes were open, and he saw objects sharper and brighter than usual.
“He described these changes as ‘high contrast vision with dominant pink colour everywhere’ and said that the environment became brighter as it was early morning, even if the environment was dark.”
According to the case study, Mr R – a general practitioner (GP) in Iran – had prescribed himself Sertraline, a type of antidepressant known as a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI). He took one 25mg dose daily for three months to treat symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He also revealed he had experienced multiple episodes of chest pain during his 20s, which led to a diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse.
When Mr R was referred to the authors’ psychiatry clinic, they suggested he may be suffering from synaesthesia – prompting him to reveal he had experienced other “bizarre feelings” when he was younger and had chest pain.
He explained that every time he had severe chest pain due to his valvular heart disease in childhood, he felt “white”. The “white” feeling was not sensed during any other types of pain, he added, and the feeling was not associated with any visual disturbances. However, the “white” sensation stopped as he entered adulthood.
After assessing Mr R, the doctors concluded that synaesthesia couldn’t have been induced by Sertraline as he self-prescribed the antidepressant after experiencing the bizarre symptoms.
The doctors also determined he did not have any colour vision abnormalities, sexual dysfunction or underlying diseases, leading to the official diagnosis of synaesthesia. There is no specific treatment for the condition as doctors say it is not an illness.
“The report demonstrates coexistence of a rare form of synaesthesia as orgasm to colour with specific pain to colour synaesthesia. In contrast to previous reports, our case demonstrated colour orgasm as a type of synaesthesia that might not negatively affect sex life in men,” the case study concluded.
What is synaesthesia?
Synaesthesia is a condition and perceptual phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers. For example, some people may “taste” colours or “feel” sounds, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Some describe synaesthesia as having their “wires crossed” due to the condition activating two or more senses in an instance where only one would typically be initiated.
Experts estimate at least 4% of people worldwide experience the condition, although that number may be higher as there are so many possible forms. Some experts estimate certain manifestations of synaesthesia – especially time-space synaesthesia – may affect as many as one in eight people.
In the case report, the authors described synaesthesia as “stimuli meant to stimulate one sense stimulating other senses” and noted that more than 150 different manifestations have been reported in literature.
While there are no specific criteria for its diagnosis, the phenomenon has three main characteristics: automaticity, meaning that it cannot be controlled or inhibited; consistency, with some individuals experiencing it from childhood; and specific triggers that stimulate the phenomenon in individuals.
It’s estimated that Mr R’s manifestation – “coloured pain and orgasm in colours” – account for 2.5% and 1% of synaesthesia cases respectively, said the authors. Estimates also suggest up to 2% of the population experience a level of synaesthesia during sex, according to Psychology Today.
“Co-occurrence of different types of synaesthesia is very rare, and up to now, there is no published report about concurrent synaesthesia involving both pain and orgasm in colour,” the report added.
Notable people said to either have or have had the condition include Vincent van Gogh, Pharrell Williams, Billy Joel, Billie Eilish, Tori Amos, Charli XCX, and New Zealand singer Lorde.
In 2017, Lorde explained how the condition affects her in an interview with Vevo, revealing her brain will assign separate colours to different friends and days of the week. She previously said the phenomenon also causes her to see music in colours.
“You pick a chord then all of a sudden, there’s this flood of a different colour or a different texture. It’s exciting and it’s strange and it makes everything feel a little bit more vivid,” she said in the interview.
Speaking about his experience with the condition to NPR in 2014, producer and rapper Pharrell revealed he sees music in colour, adding: “People with synaesthesia, we don’t really notice until someone brings it up and then someone else says, ‘Well, no, I don’t see colours when I hear music’, and that’s when you realise something’s different.
“If you just take the time to ask super-genius people, you’ll notice that they, their learning process, the way they process information, is slightly different,” he continued. “None of this is to say that I belong in that category at all. I’m just telling you most musicians and most visual artists and most academics, they sort of have that thing, and if you ask them, it’s really interesting to see the people who do and the people who don’t.”
During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2021, hitmaker Billie Eilish also opened up about living with the condition, saying it helps inspire her creative process.
She even noted that Fallon appears to her as a “vertical brown rectangle” while the letters J and M all have a brown connotation.
“All of my videos for the most part have to do with synaesthesia. All of my artwork, everything I do live, all the colours for each song, it’s because those are the colours for those songs,” she said.
