Face blindness anyone?

[WoeIsMee]

Does anyone have it? It’s when you can’t recognise/have great difficulty recognising people.

Yes, I have it to a certain extent and so does my Dad, and so, I suspect, does DS1. When he started school he couldn’t find his friends in the playground because everyone had the same clothes on. I have all the difficulties mentioned here.
I suspect people with face blindness develop a good memory for facts about other people and use this to basically deduce who people are - I go by things like hair colour and length, clothes, accent, number and ages of children, any info let slip in conversation like job, where they live etc.
Personally I can’t hold a face in my mind - the better I know someone the better I can describe them, with facts like “ he has blond hair, he has a mole on his cheek” but these are learned facts, I can’t see the face in my mind, even my children. Like a PP if someone were to knock at the door I wouldn’t be able to describe them later, I would struggle to give their hair colour even if I hadn’t made a note of it at the time.

I am extremely short sighted. The glasses you wear when you're shortsighted basically make the image you can see clear, but smaller. So I have to be pretty close before I'll recognise anyone anyway.
On top of this, I can't imagine someone's face, in my mind. I can learn to recognise people, but it takes a while. I usually just tell people that I have very poor eyesight, as that's quicker to explain.

If it's a bit dark I have no chance of recognising people, and have been known to look a friend straight in the eyes and turn away, still looking for them. (I only know this as my children told me that's what happened afterwards!)

Online dating was a bit of a nightmare, especially on the second or third date when they kind of expect you to remember what you look like. I realised that I've developed a strategy of going to the place where I've agreed to meet someone, and when I get there, I deliberately don't look for them. I go in the door and get out my mobile phone or something, and stare at that until they come up to me and say hello. This is to avoid the awkward situation of me looking straight at them, totally blankly :)

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work either, as you sometimes get someone apparently greeting you, so you give them a big smile back, until it turns out they were smiling at someone just behind you.

I've become the master of pretending to have been smiling about something else.

I did one of those online face blindness tests, but came out quite well in that - it seems that I can recognise features quite well, and remember them for a short time. I just can't keep them in my memory; no long-term storage area for that. I don't think that's the same thing as prosopagnosia.

I think I have a form of this. I can't tell if people are twins even when identical if they have something different like a different hair style or a different pair of glasses.

Me. Terribly. I note that it's most apparent when I see someone out of context.

So...the school receptionist who I see daily....saw her in town...had NO idea who it was that had approached me and started chatting.

Woman who lives down the road who has a DD who plays with mine...saw her in a wig in town for a charity event...NO idea. Every other part of her was the same. She took her wig off and said "You don't know me do you?" and I sad "no" and she said "It's X!" and I knew then....

I notice I'm especially bad with women who are quite generic looking with bobbed dark hair.

MrsRobinsons me too! But I've developed so many other strategies too...like I'll say "Oh I need glasses! I couldn't see who it was"

And I'll also just act really pleased to see anyone who smiles at me...or says hi.....that way I'm insured if I do know them.

I will say things like "Oh hi!!! How ARE you!?" with a big grin. If I don't know them and they think I'm nuts, I don't really care...at least I'm friendly!

Years ago I got myself a DVD of Phoenix Nights, starring Peter Kay. After I'd watched it all, I lent it to a friend. When he gave it back, we discussed what we thought of it. During the conversation it became clear that Peter Kay played several of the characters, and also that I had no idea this was the case :) so embarrassing!

I knew someone who developed this severely after a stroke. She could sometimes recognise people from the back, but didn't recognise her family and would have walked away with anyone who said they were her husband. He had to tell her who he was each time he entered a room, even if he had just gone to the loo or answered the door. Very, very difficult for them.

I have the opposite problem. I recognise faces, but names escape me.

I'm actually glad I'm not alone . I try to work on strategies for people like neighbours etc by remembering what type of dog they own. But can't work around bumping into people at random places. I just keep my head down when out and hope not to see anyone .

My dd has this. I'm a psychologist and found a test at work that assessed memory for faces. When I tested her, she score well below the first centile (ie If 100 kids took the test, she would do the worst). It has caused considerable issues for her socially. Making friends at secondary was tricky as everyone wore uniform and so she had no idea who she had spoken to before. Nightmare situation apparently was being asked to handout books by the teacher.
She can't follow TV programs or films, although she tells me with one of the apps (netflixs?) when you put subtitles on, it tells you the name of the person speaking as well as what they say and this is helpful. She is about to transition to a new school and I'm concerned about how she'll cope. She does not want me to let them know this is a problem. Tricky.

I think I have this. Plus a dreadful short term memory. We live on a rural lane, if neighbours drive past in a different car I don’t know who they are. If I work in first class on the planes, sometimes we have a passenger from the outward flight turn up for the return flight with us and I don’t even recognise them, despite serving them for 8 hours the day before. It makes me look rude or snobby! I don’t remember names either, I think it may be partially down to nerves. I’m hopeless at these ice breaker games where you have to introduce your neighbours and say something about them.

I have found my people.

I have this too and recognise so many
of the situations described.

I don't recognise myself on older photographs either.
I've been known to stare fascinated by this stranger standing with my children in pics.

I would be interested to know if people who don't have problems with this can remember what their children looked like as babies, without looking at photos. That would be really nice.

I have the opposite problem. I recognise faces, but names escape me.
I remember an interview with Stephen Fry in which he said that Hugh Laurie couldn't remember names. So if they were going along the street together and bumped into someone, they'd both be all lovely and friendly, and then when they'd gone past, Stephen Fry would ask who it was, and Hugh Laurie would say "It was that woman who did our make up in the third series of XYZ", and Fry would say "Oh, you mean Jeanette Richards" and both would be happy.

I can’t recognise my kids in photos or in uniform. I can’t follow films. I can’t do those awful ice-breaker games. I can’t work out which senior person is which because they never say who they are and assume everyone knows.

I do tell people, but I generally get the reply “Oh, I’m the same, awful with names.” Which is incredibly irritating - most people know they’ve met someone, it’s a whole different kettle of fish when you are continually blanking someone you see every day.

@ravenmum - me too! I had no idea Peter Kay played Max until Max and Paddy came out, I thought he just played the main character. I also did OK in the celeb test online, although I am not great at the picture rounds on Pointless.
@neolara - my nightmare at school was handing out books as well! There was a group of girls who actually looked pretty different to each other but had the same style, and I could never tell them apart. I also hear children read at my kids’ school and have to sneak a look at each child’s reading diary to check who they are when they come and read to me, even my own children’s good friends. There is one girl with a bob where all the others have long hair, so I remember her, can remember the red headed child, and various others with distinguishing features, but mostly they are a generic blur.

I have it,mine can be very severe I suffer from facial blindness because I suffer from FND and my FND has effected the part of my brain that should store peoples faces that I know.

The worst one ever which was quite frightening was when I was in town in a busy shop and I didn't recognize my own DH when he was walking towards me,luckily one of my DD's was with me and was able to help me bless her.

I have this and it can be excruciatingly embarrassing. I can hold entire conversations with people and not have a clue who they are, even after working with them for years. I commonly get people mixed up and can completely relate to people leaving messages for dh or something but being unable to tell them who the message was from, or even describe them beyond male, brown hair

I would be terrible if I ever saw a crime, I could never describe anyone if I was a witness! Dh is the opposite, he could be a super recogniser ( one of the police whose job it is to pick known hooligan out of crowds on cctv)

I have difficulty too in recognising people. At work I used to ask for a seating plan so I could see where any particular person sat. I'd rely on things like glasses/hair colour/hair style to try to remember people - a disaster if they changed any of those markers.
And yes as to the difficulty of recognising my own children in the school yard in school uniform.

Anyone else had trouble with their eyesight since childhood? I started getting shortsighted from about age 6, and I wonder if that could affect your visual memory - if you can't see properly anyway so never learn to rely on the small visual details.

Not me but dd 12 and she can't remember peoples faces she has asd and i was told it's quite common for asd people to not be able to recognise faces.

I have had this all my life and been in so many embarrassing situations because of it! Ididn't realise there was a name for it.

Pretty much every situation/symptom posters are describing here, I recognise!
My partner just said he feels bad now for taking the mick out of me not knowing who different actors or different people are in films and having trouble following the plot
On our first date, even though I had met and spent an evening with him before in person, I texted him to ask him to wave at me when I came into the restaurant as I didn't have my glasses on. In truth I was worried I wouldn't recognise him, but I didn't even realise that was what I was doing, I'm so used to trying to adapt to it.

I've had so many embarrassing situations in the street, at events, at work, socially, but as I have always been like this I guess I have learned to adapt. Shame that there isnt more awareness and tips for people that have this. I learned a tip once that if you meet someone you say their name out loud back at them and pick out a noticable feature like "nice to meet you Gareth" (moustache, blue top) and keep saying their name in your head. Then Gareth= moustache/blue top. Wondered why this always stuck with me.

I have this and it has really affected my confidence. You feel like you're always on the back foot. I only found out recently that a father I see in the playground at school and say hello to is the same person as the colleague I see everyday and say hello to!