It was a weird discovery late in life. I had just assumed my experience was "normal" and that people were being poetic when using the phrase "in my minds eye"

The information is all still in my head, it is just coded differently. My closest analogy is the difference between raster graphics and vector graphics. One is created by pixels, one is created by math. The comparison is not perfect because they are both still images, but it helps people understand.

I get the worst earworms, but they are only external (to the annoyance of people around me). If I hear a familiar riff, my brain will go crazy until it remembers the song it came from, but that is all happening behind a black acoustic curtain. I can tell the difference between notes / chords, and I know when they sound wrong, but I can't make name associations yet. I think that will come with practice, but I will never be able to imagine a C chord in my head.

I don't think it has held me back, I have had a successful career in architecture which requires a lot of imaginary head work, the data just gets processed and accessed differently. I figure it will be the same with music. I was hoping there were others with tips on practicing to accommodate that difference.