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?

No sense of direction here either. Even if I've been there before. Thank god for Google maps etc. Apparently that is linked to prosopagnosia and also more prevalent in left handers.

I spent far too much time in a psychology department.....

Lol. I met a woman in Tesco about a year ago and had a really long chat with her. It still bugs me today that I can't think who she is. I hope I'm not still wondering 14 years from now!😁

I crossed the road to have a chat with my neighbour, having waved and called hello, and she'd responded. After a minute I realised it wasn't her but her cleaner (who I also know) due to the voice. Long dark hair, in her front yard, an easy mistake to make.....i think I styled it out. Maybe. It still haunts me.

Exact same here with faces and directions. I'm otherwise very capable 😂

Likewise. I can organise meetings, minute them, chair them, but can I easily find my way to the room they sometimes are held in in another building, even though it's the tenth time? No I can not.

I recognise people by their dogs, wouldn’t recognise the humans but remember the dogs.
Apparently I walked past my mother in local city centre many years ago, admittedly I didn’t expect to meet her there but she was very offended.
If I don’t recognise someone I usually pick up on who they are by their voice.

I have this too. I recognise context, hair, height, voices, hair styles, hair colour even head shape but not faces. My own grandmother could pass me in the street if she dyed her hair a different colour. I always worry people think I’m racist because I particularly struggle with people with black hair or wearing a hijab because it’s one less thing to recognise 😢

Dp accused me of that when I couldn't tell the difference between two arsenal defenders who were mixed race. When he saw me do the same thing with two blonde white women on Made in Chelsea, he dropped it....

I’m ok with directions, but yes to films being difficult to follow. I strugggle with people changing their hair style. Possibly because that’s how I recognise people.

Famously, once thought two work colleagues (who I see most days around the department but are in a different office to me) were the same person for an entire year.

That must have been confusing for them if you were resuming conversations with one where you'd left off with the other.

You could be a “super recogniser”! I’m one apparently (I did a test and was asked to join some research but didn’t have time to follow it up and join).

With the PhD students i looked after, my staff member kindly made me a crib sheet with photos and names that I had visible on my desk but not to them when they came in. Really helpful.

I’m face blind, name blind , direction blind, and also now realising that I can’t follow verbal instructions easily, which I think is a processing disorder linked to my adhd.

have we worked out whether there’s a connection to neurodivergence yet? I think I may be mildly autistic too.

I have this. I don't think it's face blindness, just that you find it difficult to recognise them outside their setting. It's normal, not face blindness 🙄

Ok google is my friend - apparently it is more common amongst people with autism and with adhd than in the general population. In adhd it can be due to inattentiveness and memory as well as difficulty processing social information. I assume in autism it’s primarily the latter.

Oh this is defo me. If I see anyone out of context I have no idea who they are. Can think of three definite moments of excruciating embarrassment.

• sat at lunch with a bloke for a good four hours. Great chat, lots of fun. Following week he was in same pub as me and I’d no clue.
• neighbour came to my door to ask if I’d take bins out when he was on holiday following week - didn’t recognise him without a hedge between us
• the worst. Spent an entire day doing an activity with another woman. She had her hair in a ponytail. Later that evening there was a bbq for all the teams and she came in with her hair down and I shook her hand and introduced myself. Cringe

Omg the mixing up colleagues thing has happened to me too. My mind was blown when I realised they were two people not one!

I have this mildly. I also think I have adhd mildly. I also need a second to remember left and right.
I never remember anyones face until I’ve met them a few times. I’ve barely met my neighbours so I never recognise them out of place. I probably wouldn’t even recognise them in place either.
I’ve met some of my dcs friends but I’d never recognise them out and about. When they start speaking, I’ll recognise their voice.

I knew someone who had it so badly that she could only pick out the right child to collect from the school by the coloured hair bands she'd deliberately put in. Now that's worrying.

I have this quite badly. One of the worst times was when I was in the pub with my ex and a woman came and sat with us and started talking. Found the whole thing really strange as my ex didn’t introduce me. She left and he was like, “why were you so rude to her?” and i obviously replied with something like well who was she and why didn’t you introduce me?! Then he told me I’d met her several times before, once in the previous week. Just in a totally different place. She must have thought I was such a bitch!

I have face blindness badly. I actually tell people I know that if I see them somewhere and don’t recognise them why I won’t recognise them, and it is ok to remind me.

Yet, I can recognise people’s walk / gait and mannerisms if I’m looking, and place them. But faces, no chance.

I am terrible with faces, even when they are in their own environment. One of my neighbours recently knocked on my door, they were dropping off some items they were clearing out. Even though in that moment I had not the foggiest who they were i still obliged and took the bag off this "stranger" 😆

I have this as well - all the more embarrassing for the fact that my mother recognizes everyone (I take after my father).

I just took this face blindness test:
https://www.testmybrain.org/face-blindness/face-blindness.html

and found it hard. To my surprise, I am not much under average.

Same here. I've always had it. It's a really weird thing to have. I can't recognise anyone away from where I usually expect to see them. I can never spontaneously stop to chat to anyone I know in shops or on the streets etc as I just don't "see" them. If someone stops me, it can be a very embarrassing few minutes until I finally realise who they are. Clients, neighbours, even family other than immediate family, work colleagues, the lot! I once "blanked" my sister in law!

OH is the opposite, he'll recognise/remember everyone from everywhere. If, say, on holiday, he'll put out people around the pool or in a restaurant who were on our plane or who were in the check in queue. I don't know how he does it, but he just remembers faces.

Ha Ha! I've done that at primary school assemblies/shows, ending up videoing the wrong child as I didn't recognise our own! Don't they all look the same?