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very good at recognizing face. can any of you relate?

Lydia Z

Lydia Z

Lydia Zamunda
I have read that being on the spectrum means having prosopagnosia and that is not true for me. I barely forget a face i saw. It doesn't matter how long or if they have changed their hair, I will still recognize the face. I was annoyed by this ability when i was younger as I saw it as crowding my mind with all those faces or useless information. Anyone on the spectrum that is good with facial recognition or does not have prosopagnosia?
 
Generally speaking yes. I did take a facial expression test and I did fairly well on it. I don't think it's that aspies can't learn how to recognize facial cues, it's just that we learn how to differently than non-aspies do. Generally speaking, non-aspies seem to be able to learn how to read faces just by looking at people and being in social situations while aspies seem to have to actually be told what the faces mean. Once we learn though and program it into our brain, it's not that hard.
 
I believe posopagnosia is a comorbid of autism that some have and others don't.
 
I always recognize faces, it is the names that I can not remember. There have been a lot of times that people have come up to me, addressed me by my name and started talking to me. I know the face but can not remember the name. This is very embarrassing. These days I just blame it on having a senior moment.
 
Lots of senior moments lately.
But, as I said in another post: How can you remember a face when you tend to ignore looking at the
people around you in a crowd or not looking them in the eyes when speaking?
 
I do have issues recognising faces sometimes including faces of people I have known for awhile,it can embarrassing like one time I was in the ladies washing my hands and this girl I know who is my husbands friend girlfriend came up to me and she said my name but I seriously didn’t know who she was until she told me her name which mind you I have known this girl for a few years.
 
I'm very good at recognising a face and picking up on facial expressions. Being bad at them is not a require for being on the autism spectrum.
 
All of that is very funny because you may think you are good at it or think you are bad at it but in reality its realy hard to know how good or bad you are good at it if you don't test it for real or have any problem with that.

Many times I see strangers and I feel like I already know them and it takes me seconds to realize they are different its a bit like when you play a MMO and you load into a map with a bad computer the textures are not detailled until sometimes and thats a bit how I feel sometimes IRL xD

And you have the anxiety problem aswell , When I see someone I think I know I want to say hello to this person but I always hesitate , and thats an old stuff I remember around 10 at the pool during the holiday I meet someone at the pool who was an adult working in my school but it took me like 10min like for 10min I turned around him to look at him and be sure it was him I guess it was god damn awkward xD.

But also one day I met someone in the public transports, it was a girl that I met during a vacation camp ( wasnt close to her ) and when she met mee she said she knew me and we talked about that vacation camp ( it was a few years ago from the moment I saw her again) and I just had no idea who she was so I just pretended I knew her and we talked a few minutes , kek.
 
Edit :

I want to add that this face recognition problem is so much complicated.

I guess some people are realy face blind like you can be color blind or stuff like that, I dont think this is my case BUT.

We dont look at people faces, I dont know why, latest example I talked with a coworker few days ago and it was someone I already knew but I litteraly spent like 15min talking to her without facing her.

I guess this is related to the " cant do many things at once casually" , because I guess I can remember someone face but I had to be like " Ok pls stand by and don't talk pls, I have to take a photo of you in my head pls" and that would be weird.

But others just talk and look at you and they remember your name and your face at the same time...

To remember that I need to focus after the conversation like picturing the face in m head and repeating the name also, I even did that with my own parents faces.

And in addition if you are anxious well you will be a bit out of yourself so if you meet new people in a situations that stresses you , you might have a harder time remembering things about them. Their faces will just look slightly familiar and that's it.
 
SusanLR said:
Lots of senior moments lately.
But, as I said in another post: How can you remember a face when you tend to ignore looking at the
people around you in a crowd or not looking them in the eyes when speaking?
Click to expand...
I am always looking at my environment. It is very important too me. I feel like, I have to know what to do in that environment if anything suddenly arises. I am always planning the worst case scenarios in my head and looking at people(of course when they are not looking and I'm not staring), exits(I like to keep close to exits) helps me feel safe. If i have that all planned I feel safer knowing what to do.
 
Iamnotarabot said:
All of that is very funny because you may think you are good at it or think you are bad at it but in reality its realy hard to know how good or bad you are good at it if you don't test it for real or have any problem with that.

Many times I see strangers and I feel like I already know them and it takes me seconds to realize they are different its a bit like when you play a MMO and you load into a map with a bad computer the textures are not detailled until sometimes and thats a bit how I feel sometimes IRL xD

And you have the anxiety problem aswell , When I see someone I think I know I want to say hello to this person but I always hesitate , and thats an old stuff I remember around 10 at the pool during the holiday I meet someone at the pool who was an adult working in my school but it took me like 10min like for 10min I turned around him to look at him and be sure it was him I guess it was god damn awkward xD.


But also one day I met someone in the public transports, it was a girl that I met during a vacation camp ( wasnt close to her ) and when she met mee she said she knew me and we talked about that vacation camp ( it was a few years ago from the moment I saw her again) and I just had no idea who she was so I just pretended I knew her and we talked a few minutes , kek.
Click to expand...
Now that I read your post I'm thinking I might not be as good because I'm comparing myself to my husband who is really bad at recognizing faces and even confusing two different people for one. I have to compare myself with someone else and get to the bottom of it. Some years ago, I saw this old lady that lived in the same apartment building as me, years ago and i recognized her face and it took me a while to figure out where i know her from. I never had any type of interaction with the lady while living in the same building except seeing each other in the lobby of the building. I shouldn't be recognizing her because she does not have any significance to my life but i do remember her and others that i have shared elevators with and so on.
 
Not all people on the spectrum have trouble with faces or names. I'm one such person - once I see a face or hear a name enough times, both of them stick like glue.

Facial expressions on the other hand can be problematic, but then some people are good at hiding what's inside so taking it at face value doesn't always work. Sort of hard to tell whether or not the expression on the outside matches a person's inner thoughts in these cases.
 
Not all people have all symptoms, especially with HFA. I'm pretty good with faces and its actually a part of a special interest of mine.
 
Face blindness is NOT one of the recognized autistic traits. It may be a co-morbidity, since it's apparently more frequent among people on the spectrum, but it isn't part of autism.

I do poorly on face recognition tests, and I do have trouble recognizing some people, even actors who are so familiar you'd think no one could miss them.
 
Interesting discussion. I enjoy reading everyone’s different experiences with this. It seems like face blindness is just one more stereotype. You may have it, you may not. It may be common among aspies, but it’s not an ASD litmus test.

I struggle with recognizing faces. It’s not full-blown prosopagnosia, but it’s a constant difficulty. I reflexively smile and wave at anyone that gives me the “look of recognition”, hoping that I’ll recognize them soon afterward. This means that sometimes I smile and wave at total strangers. Then I have to tell myself that I’ll probably never see that person again and not to be embarrassed.
 
I'm the opposite of you, especially with people I don't know and I can't visualise faces or in fact much else, well if I'm very lucky I might see a vague flash of family member, then I can't remember any details and that's my limit. I know you were interested in people like yourself, but I still wanted to mention a point. Even though people on the autistic spectrum have many common traits, not everyone has all the traits and sometimes autistic people can even be better than average at abilities where most are impaired, but it doesn't make them any less autistic.

For instance many people on the autistic spectrum have poor motor skills and co-ordination, but my adult brother who is on the very low functioning end of the autistic spectrum to the extent where he can't count is absolutely stunning at controlling a football (soccer ball for those in the USA) with his feet, in fact practising became a special interest of his for a good while where he'd spend many hours every single day doing it, it's a shame he is unable to comprehend the rules of the game and he wouldn't play with anyone else anyway.
 
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