faceless people

[Pats]

This hurts me more than anything else in my life. To not know someone I love (my son, my granddaughter, an old family friend) when they are not where they belong.
I can not think about not knowing my little granddaughter when I saw her in town without unbelievable heart ache.
If you cut your hair I am not going to know you. If you wear a hat I wont know you. This I think is the hardest thing...

I really understand that. In a big crowd once I just noticed my mom stopping to talk to someone and as I went to ask who she was talking to I realized it was my son. Another time I started to fuss at who I thought was one of my kids playing with a straw dispenser and as I looked at the child said, "Oh, sorry I thought you were one of mine". My son looked up at me and said, "Mom, I am one of yours". I felt terrible but glad that he just found it funny and blamed it on lack of sleep.

 

[AO1501]

I really understand that. In a big crowd once I just noticed my mom stopping to talk to someone and as I went to ask who she was talking to I realized it was my son. Another time I started to fuss at who I thought was one of my kids playing with a straw dispenser and as I looked at the child said, "Oh, sorry I thought you were one of mine". My son looked up at me and said, "Mom, I am one of yours". I felt terrible but glad that he just found it funny and blamed it on lack of sleep.

That makes me feel slightly less bad, because at least I do recognise my immediate family. Just as well since I am due to meet my youngest daughter at the airport in a week or so, and I always fear I won't be able to tell which one is her. I always have though.

But after my ex an I split up, I totally forgot what she looked like. For all I know I may have bumped into her in Walmart at any point after and I wouldn't have known her, and that was after 15 years together!

 

[Sid Delicious]

"This hurts me more than anything else in my life. To not know someone I love (my son, my granddaughter, an old family friend) when they are not where they belong. I can not think about not knowing my little granddaughter when I saw her in town without unbelievable heart ache."

I can't say it's ever bothered me in that way. My family are all aware that I struggle with recognising anyone, so they wouldn't take it personally. I just get a few jokes from time to time! Does your family know you have difficulties with faces? I'm sure they wouldn't be upset by it if they know it's just the way your brain works. Children especially are very accepting once they know what the problem is. My cousin is now over the one year old mark and judges me entirely on my behaviour once I start interacting with her (after I recognise her) and not before. And she isn't even aware of prosopagnosia. I think her little brain just assumes I have a problem with sight (which I suppose is indirectly true) so I get waved at a lot!

 

[Adora]

I have this issue,I sometimes don’t recognise a face even if I have met that person more than enough that I should remember what they
look like,sometimes it takes a few seconds for me to register who it is or in some cases they have to tell me who they are,I think it may be due to the fact I don’t look people in the eyes and that’s what my husband thinks is the reason why I don’t recognise people sometimes.

 

[DCA]

I ran into my friend's wife a few weeks ago, & it took me several moments to recognize her. New environment & she was wearing a hat. I usually don't have an issue with facial recognition, but now that the topic was brought up, I thought it was interesting.

 

[techteach]

"This hurts me more than anything else in my life. To not know someone I love (my son, my granddaughter, an old family friend) when they are not where they belong. I can not think about not knowing my little granddaughter when I saw her in town without unbelievable heart ache."

I can't say it's ever bothered me in that way. My family are all aware that I struggle with recognising anyone, so they wouldn't take it personally. I just get a few jokes from time to time! Does your family know you have difficulties with faces? I'm sure they wouldn't be upset by it if they know it's just the way your brain works. Children especially are very accepting once they know what the problem is. My cousin is now over the one year old mark and judges me entirely on my behaviour once I start interacting with her (after I recognise her) and not before. And she isn't even aware of prosopagnosia. I think her little brain just assumes I have a problem with sight (which I suppose is indirectly true) so I get waved at a lot!

Thank you Sid. Except for my wife they really don't believe me. Just had a long conversation with one of my sons and he was telling me how it's natural to not recognize people when they are not where they belong. He is in sales and he was telling me funny stories about not recognizing clients/potential clients. I am here to talk to people who do understand.

 

[Sloth]

This is a lot more common than people realize. It has to do with the fact that the part of the brain that specifically work to recognize faces is different than the one for recognizing other stuff (so you can have problems recognizing faces even if not for other things). It's definitely a real issue and its unfortunate it's not more widely recognized.

 

[Pats]

I've always liked Tim Allen. But when I watch Last Man Standing I can not picture what he looks like in Home Improvements. When I watch Home Improvements I can not picture what he looks like In Last Man Standing.

 

[DCA]

I was just thinking of this thread the past couple days & in response to my post above. I wonder if you can have a "mild" version of this. I often hesitate to acknowledge people in public that are only acquaintances because of fear that I have the wrong person (& of course the subsequent embarrassment) brought about due to a milder form of this?

 

[Reu]

I tend not to look at people’s faces as well. It takes me a while to put a name to a face for this reason. My wife will talk about someone at church and I don’t know who she is talking about. She will try to describe them until I have to tell her that no matter what she does to describe them I just don’t know who she is talking about. I remember a name but not a face.