Difficulty Recognizing People

[Bay]

Women aren't really supposed to look strangers on the street right in the eye, anyway.

 

[HelloDizzy]

Maybe in the 1400's

 

[Arashi222]

I am not sure if this is because of my eyesight issues or my AS. I do have trouble recognizing people. I often don't know where or how many times I have meet someone. I do tend to try to pick out a feature on teh person that I know is most likely not to change so that I know who they are.

 

[Bay]

Maybe in the 1400's

I don't mean literally, only that if something happens to a woman, say, sexual assault, she tends to get blamed for it. Hence, don't make eye contact with strangers.

 

[HelloDizzy]

Rule of thumb; don't talk to strangers unless they talk to you first =P

 

[Cerulean]

I have trouble recognizing people if it see them out of context. For instance, I can't recognize my neighbor if I see her at the supermarket. I can't recognize a coworker at the mall (I hate the mall anyway and tend to walk around with my head down). It's as though I need to see them in the same environment in which I met them in order to recognize them.

I'm the same way. And last weekend after having a couple beers I ran into my friend Tasha, couldn't remember her name, then when I remembered her my brain somehow reprogrammed her as Tanya, and I can't for the life of me get back to thinking of her as Tasha.

 

[arthurfakaya]

You know what my problem is? Describing faces. Seriously, it's funny how I can tell people apart without mistake by looking at them yet I can't describe them off the top of my head.

You're not alone. Sadly, I wouldn't even be able to get a sketch artist to draw my kids' faces, as much as they are embedded in my mind's eye.

 

[lizzy171002]

I have this thing where I have a vague sense of recognition towards EVERYBODY. If a complete stranger walked up to me and told me that we had met before, I would likely believe them, all the while completely unable to place them and too embarrassed to say that.
I can remember faces if I happen to see and interact with them ever few days. More than a few days separate and I will start loosing the face again, bit by bit.
I'm very good at remembering body-shapes and postures, so that is usually how I recognize people. It makes finding someone in a crowd very easy, cause I'm not looking for a face, but a certain walk + posture + shape.

 

[JTUK]

I have a variation on this. I often recognize people when I don't know them after all. This is almost as awkward as failing to recognize someone.

Jason

 

[Aspieistj]

Yes, yes, YES!!!!! I have prosopagnosia!!!! I belong to a great forum called [email protected]. It is a closed (honor system) group only for those of us who really have PA. There is an open group on Yahoo. I was born faceblind but some people are "normal" and recognize faces until they suffer some type of brain insult or injury. Their affliction is acquired. They are very helpful for those of us who were born FB because they can actually talk about life before and after. I am very FB and have even failed to recognize my father shortly after he began to wear glasses, as well as a good friend who had a beard and then shaved it off. I had absolutely no idea who he was. When my children were young, 2 years and 10 months apart, they were about the same size and coloring. Their grandmother couldn't resist a sale and often bought them identical outfits. When we traveled I deliberately dressed them alike because it was easier to keep track of them in a crowd. People often asked if they were twins. They never liked each other and absolutely hated it when I would turn to one of them and ask who he was. When my older son was in his 20s and married, and by then looked quite different from his brother, I passed him and his wife in a store and didn't recognize either of them. His wife was tiny and extremely pretty and I still didn't notice her. They divorced and he moved to CA. I hadn't seen him for 5 years when we met in Maine to vacation together. I expected to have trouble picking him out of the disembarking passengers at the airport but I did know he now kept his hair almost shaved and that he worked out a lot. He came down the escalator alone and I thought the buff guy with almost no hair was probably him. I did recognize him when I saw him walk. I rely heavily on body shape and personal style of dressing and movement in order to recognize a few distinct people. I know the married couple across the street but none of their children or other relatives who visit frequently. Until I was in my 50s I did not know PA was a real disorder. I thought it was my personal shame. I suffered abuse all my life for being so uncaring that I didn't bother to really look at a person and later recall his face. I am also extremely bad at recalling names. I had bosses criticize me for my rudeness. I started a family feud once because I never recognized or spoke to my cousin whom I check out when I was a cashier. My mother tormented me for being so self centered and uncaring. Life was total Hell and I still had to cope with being an Aspie--something else no one knew anything about. I am 69 and learned about PA while in my 50s and then that I was an Aspie when I was in my early 60s. I have known emotional pain and self loathing all my life.

Quite a few of the members of the PA group are also on the Autism spectrum and I believe the two conditions are related. PA is known to be due to a disturbance in a particular part of the brain and even shows up on very sophisticated brain imaging. I am willing to tell most people I have PA because it is easier for me if I can teach them to help me recall who they are when we meet out of context. In context plays a big part of having a chance of recognition. I am also extremely aware of various facial feature types. I can remember overbites, spaces between teeth, receding chins, blemishes, heavy brow ridges and eye color. I think I could probably give a pretty good description to a sketch artist but it would still be very generic. I rely heavily on voices, body shapes, ways of moving and, as long as they remain unchanged, hair color and style. I was a teacher and then a nurse and am very interested in educating the public about these handicaps so I tell people I am an Aspie and have PA if it can be realistically worked into the conversation. I really don't want to insult or otherwise annoy people so I feel I should warn that that I am, indeed, weird, but still a decent person.

Brad Pitt recently told Esquire he has PA and the Today show with Hoda and Kathy Lee made absolute fools of themselves making fun of the idea that someone could really be unable to recognize faces. These two college educated women also thought being unable to pronounce PRO SO PAG NO SIA was extremely funny. They were absolutely disgusting in their insensitivity and stupidity of a long word and how the condition causes those afflicted with it emotional and social pain. They should be fired!!!! They would be if they had been so insensitive to better known handicaps. Oh yeah--I wonder what they REALLY think of AS????

 

[Cuppa' Tea]

Oh good lord, I am terrible at recognizing faces. I work in retail, and someone will come through my line, then come back an hour later going "Back again!" and I have to pretend I recognize them!

 

[Leej07]

I have forgotten family members' names, faces, how they're related. I have a niece born last year I've never met yet, and right now, I had to strain to remember her name is Shylow. (Or is it Shyloh? Shiloh? Shenandoah?) I literally forget her name. I've forgotten aunts and uncle faces before. I've even forgot I met certain family members. I forgot I had met my Uncle Buster at a funeral. I forgot meeting my Aunt Lillie at the same funeral. Its a nightmare. However, oddly enough, I ALWAYS can recall my grandparent's faces, and they've both passed away. I also mix names up.

 

[Lector Tiberius]

I have this thing where I have a vague sense of recognition towards EVERYBODY. If a complete stranger walked up to me and told me that we had met before, I would likely believe them, all the while completely unable to place them and too embarrassed to say that.
I can remember faces if I happen to see and interact with them ever few days. More than a few days separate and I will start loosing the face again, bit by bit.
I'm very good at remembering body-shapes and postures, so that is usually how I recognize people. It makes finding someone in a crowd very easy, cause I'm not looking for a face, but a certain walk + posture + shape.

I can relate to excactly this ...

 

[buckyboy14]

I can remember names easily, but not faces. I'm going to be a senior in high school, and I still can't identify everybody. It's a small school, too, so there aren't many people in my grade to remember. It's so embarrassing having to ask people who they are when they've known me for over three years. And it also leads to people lying about who they are.

 

[oscar2012]

I have trouble with this as well but hi and welcome

 

[jawbonegroove]

this is a daily struggle for me. even since i was younger, if i knew i would probably see someone again any time soon, i've felt the need to -- immediately upon getting their name -- throw in a disclaimer. my usual script is, "[repeat name in vain effort], how you doing? good, good. i'm terrible with names by the way; i'll probably forget it at least three times."

once i was on a bus and caught a refelction of myself in the mirror. my hair was a bit wild because it was a windy day, and i thought 'who's that girl with that weired look in her eyes?' and then i pushed the hair out of my eyes and the girl in the mirror did the same thing.
i constantly forget people i've seen and talked to, even if i talked to them more than once, and i feel bad for hurting their feelings.

i had an instance where i was on the train, exhausted, opened my eyes and thought, "hey, that guy looks interesting." yeah. it was me.

 

[Kemetic]

These two college educated women also thought being unable to pronounce PRO SO PAG NO SIA was extremely funny.

Actually, I believe the syllables should be Pro-sop-a-gno-si-a, right? It's Greek, I don't know a lot about pronouncing ancient Greek.
Sorry.
Can I do that in this forum, this annoying habit of having to debate academic details just because I can't stand it if it's inaccurate?

Anyways, sorry that I am practicing necromancy on this age-old thread. I was doing a search on this topic, to see if there's an existing discussion before I start a new one.

So, yeah, I have this, too. Me recognizing people is annoyingly random. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Give me a new class of 10 people and I'll have their names and faces memorized at once. I'll teach them for a week, all good. Then I don't see them for 2 weeks and meet them in the break room and it's gone. I'm lucky if I at least remember that they were in my last class, but nevermind the name...

I think that this face blindness is probably the trait with the most impact on my life - I never know when it will hit and then I don't recognize a neighbour, a friend or a Great-Aunt at the family gathering.
Sometimes it's like knowing two sets of people. There's a list of names and context in my mind, I know who they are in theory. And then there's the faces of the people around me and some faces that I remember. But matching up my mental map of names with the faces and the actual living humans... well... That's super difficult.

And it's not consistent, either. Sometimes I recognize a person just fine even if I met them only once before. All good. And other times it takes half a conversation to realize that my cousin's new boyfriend is actually her brother. As in: my other cousin, who I grew up with literally in the same house. I just hadn't seen him for a bit and he grew a beard...

 

[Progster]

Actually, I believe the syllables should be Pro-sop-a-gno-si-a, right?

That's right