To not recognise anyone outside their natural environment

[Differentstarts]

I saw my neighbour in the supermarket today they spoke to me for about 10 minutes i had no clue who they where. This is a person who i say hello to everyday. My friend i was with knew exactly who she was and she's probably only seen her a handful of times. I'm like this all the time with teachers, drs, hairdresser, postman etc unless they are where their "supposed" to be i just don't recognise them. My friend on the other hand recognises everyone after meeting them once. She thinks I'm weird I think she is. Which is normal and which are you?

Face blindness. I have it mildly.

Me! I think it’s called facial blindness? It’s quite debilitating (and very embarrassing) sometimes isn’t it!!

I didn't know it was an actual thing. Off to Google i go🏃‍♀️

Was coming to say the same thing. I’ve also got it. It’s very annoying.

Yes I didn't realise it was an actual thing

DH is like that. He doesn’t recognise our neighbours, if he sees them on the high street! People have to be in context apparently!

Face blindness is a thing. Stephen Fry has it very badly.

I think I have it mildly. It often takes a few minutes to click who I'm talking to if it's an unexpected meeting. I've developed the art of fairly bland conversation until I work out who it is. I actually recognise the person's voice better than their face.

I’m like your friend. I can remember people from years ago, and from seeing them once. Recently spoke to a man in a card shop and then saw him working as a security guard somewhere else, and thought ‘oh there’s that man from cars warehouse’. I find it strange as I am often mixing up dates or forgetting appointments! So I think both is unusual and no more useful than the other!

I’m the exact same, OP. It’s very embarrassing as my job is very people-focused; I could spend the day with full someone and not recognise them the next day.

I have face blindness/prosopagnosia. It can be quite debilitating. I also really struggle with directions and finding my way places. I just can’t “see” things in my mind and find it really hard to recognise buildings/streets etc.

Often makes it hard to follow films too as everyone just looks alike!

yup, I need the context thing and find it hard if people are out of their normal place/clothes.

This is exactly how I am

I'm you. I had the same scenario with my neighbour in the supermarket, it's so awkward. Dd had to tell her friend earlier that I wasn't blanking her in the street I just don't recognise people. I'm quite sure I have a reputation for being rude. Dogs on the otherhand I have no problem recognising, I know people I meet on my walk by their dogs

I’m exactly the same with routes/directions too!! And films

Face blindness.
Swansea University used to do an online test, not sure if they still do. I found it quite eye opening to realise how much worse I am than “ordinary” people at recognising faces.
It was quite liberating. I can now tell people in advance that I’m not being rude if I don’t recognise them.

I have no sense of direction i always get lost or walk back the way iv just come when exiting shops and things

I'm the same with directions and films too! I got lost for 15mins trying to find my way out of the hospital last week. I usually make dh accompany me where I can to my hospital appointments just so I don't get lost 😭

I’m often on the other end of this. I work in a shop and have many customers who come in a few times a week . More than once I have seen a customer in the street and I can tell they haven’t got a clue who I am!

Yes, this happens to me frequently. After many embarrassing encounters I have learnt not to try and use anyones name and just go along with the conversation until I get a clue of who they are.

I chatted to a head of dept that I worked daily with... She was picking her grandson up from Karate, me my son...

No idea it was her - she wasn't behind her desk!

I've woken up before though and not recognised a partner of several years (twice!) and asked him where partner was?
No fear, just oh, where's...?

I also woke an entire household up asking where different ex was, they all said with you. I said no, that's insert name!!

I am the same

I have it mildly, went to a school event where i was working as a lunchtime supervisor

this woman came up and was chatting away to me and i had not one clue who she was

someone told me she was one of the cooks…i had seen her and chatted to her daily for years 😀

In my defence she didnt have a hairnet on and was not in a kitchen !!

I’ve only really had this once, I was in the street and saw a hot younger man waving at me, I did a sort of coy wave back then he walked up and said, ‘Hi (my first name), how are you?’ and started chatting as if we knew each other. I was baffled until I realised it was someone from my sports team (a relatively joiner but I’d still met him at least 10 times for 3 hour training sessions and chatted to him and we were on the team WhatsApp group to organise matches etc.) 😳😳

An ex-colleague of mine had genuine face blindness. He was also a neighbour of mine and when we bumped into each other at the bus stop or recycling bins I had to say, ‘it’s x from work’ so he clicked (he told me once that when he did recognise people it was from voices not faces.)

I walk my dog in the same place every day and see the same people. We chat. Seeing them and then seeing me in other locations results in one or both us not recognising each other!

If walk there without the dog I get completely ignored! People don’t recognise me.

I have the opposite of this, and remember everyone I ever meet, including where and when I met them and basically anything they have ever told me about their lives. I can recognise someone I met once 30 years ago and remember the name of their fucking cat and all their cat’s health conditions. It’s kind of a curse - not least because before I understood that not everyone was like this, I thought I was uniquely unmemorable to other people, as nobody seemed to remember all the minutiae of my life the way I remembered theirs.

I sometimes resent how much brain space this takes up that I could be using for more useful things 🤣

I’m also the same!