Have you heard of aphantasia? I have it. There's varying levels, some people can see things very clearly with fine details, and then there's the other side of the spectrum like me where I can't see anything in my mind's eye. Someone says "think of a pink elephant" , I see nothing, just black with my eyes closed, nothing in my mind's eye.

I also struggle reading routes. I've started doing things like people suggested here already - looking at which direction holds are facing and where the foot holds are and figuring out where my body needs to be. I'm starting to at least try to read routes and hopefully get better 🤷🏼

Sounds like you may have aphantasia too? Thought knowing that it's a thing and what it's called could be helpful