Face blindness (prosopagnosia)

[Onceseen]

I have become aware over the past few years that I have face blindness. I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old and, looking back, I think the face blindness set in after my second child. It means I find it very difficult to remember faces and to store a memory of a face after meeting someone new, even if I have spent a long time talking to that person. Since people started wearing masks and stopped getting regular haircuts(!) I have been finding it even harder to recognise people. In fact, I recently spoke to my best friend for two minutes before I realised she was my best friend and not a stranger - all because she was wearing sun glasses on her head pushing her fringe back. I definitely have suffered general brain fog since having kids. But the face blindness is altogether distinct. The funny thing is that prior to having kids my ability to remember faces was almost freakily exceptional. I've been trying to figure out how common this is (or isn't) and wondered if there were any other mums out there who have developed face blindness after birth? The usual causes of face blindness for those who haven't had it since childhood are brain injury or sometimes stroke/tumour. But lots of things seem to crop up amongst friends following birth that aren't listed as being post-partum disorders (severe joint pain was one of them between my post-partum friends). So I'm wondering if this might be another one where people say, 'Me too!'.

No, wow, but i find this fascinating. Im the other extreme.

I’m crap at recognising people - especially if they are seen ‘out of context’. I did one of those online tests and no, I don’t have face blindness, I’m just really unobservant when it comes to human (I will remember every dog I meet in the park!)

The tests are interesting, as they usually involve very flat, still pictures of people looking directly at the camera. In common with another person I've heard talk about their face blindness, this test doesn't work for them as they have excellent recall of flat images! I run a bookshop and, incidentally, am brilliant at recognising faces on book covers! But moving, live human faces in the flesh are something else altogether. I've now started to tell new people I meet about it and that I will not remember their face if I see them again, which definitely helps ease any anxiety or embarrassment!

Oh - I’m a designer so maybe I’m used to images (I am very good at spotting errors and typos and am notorious for being very lucky a little detail). Maybe it’s just people I don’t ‘get’!

I have it too. I think I've always had it to an extent but now I think about it, maybe it did get worse after my first baby was born.

But I am exceptionally good at recognising people's voices, so once they start speaking I'm OK. Maybe that'll develop over time for you too? I'm really good at instantly recognising who is speaking on the radio!

I've struggled with faces all my life. I have, quite literally, walked past my own mother in the street. And people just think you're being rude.

Not after birth but I have to have met someone a fair few times to be able recall their face. I simply cannot picture them. There are also people that if I've not seen them for many years and not seen photos etc, I just can't recall their faces either.

I once had to go to another office and was met by and had to sit with a colleague (who I had met about ten times). Except I thought she was a different person and kept referring to her by name, ‘how’s the dog?’, etc. They did both have the same regional accent and looked vaguely familiar.

It only ‘pinged’ on my way home... she never mentioned it.

I developed a mild form of this in my late 30s/ early 40s. I have to meet someone a few times before I remember them. It's really embarrassing as people greet me and I have no idea who they are. I had my first child in my late 30s.

@nocoolnamesleft

I've struggled with faces all my life. I have, quite literally, walked past my own mother in the street. And people just think you're being rude.

Oh that’s terrible!

Both my Dc have this. Both are also ASD.
Most acute when young (age 5-10 say) when they would not know who was a boy or a girl, would call kids: 'that tall one' or 'yellow shoes' etc.
Not just poor recall of names as didn't know faces either.
I remember being in a post grad group of 25, aged 30 and I didn't know all their names after a YEAR. I used to think it was just names but I had to find a manager who interviewed me a week later in a group of 3 in a small room and had no clue which face to look for. It was embarrassing.

Had it all my life (and for obvious reasons haven't given birth). I can remember sitting on a train as a teenager trying to work out whether the guy sitting in the seat in front of me was the guy I sat next to in school as he looked different out of school uniform!

Me! I’m terrible at recognising people! When I was in my 20s I was at a conference and introduced myself to the same man 6 times!!! And just last week I had a full conversation with someone in the supermarket thinking it was a friend’s sister and she looked at me like I was crazy, turns out I am and it was most certainly not who I thought it was!

My husband doesn’t get it at all! I always tell people that I’m rubbish at recognising faces and that my DH is lucky I recognise him when we wake up next to each other in the morning!

What I really hate is when we watch a movie and it gets to the whodunit moment and there’s a big reveal and I have to ask “who’s that”

I'm dreadful at faces, it's very embarassing. I've never been great but I think its getting worse. I've put that down to tiredness and poor general observation skills. Im really, really good at scanning documents and finding relevant information very quickly, excellent at finding detail in something I'm specifically looking at, like a large map. But I could walk up and down the same road 20 times and not 'notice' that a particular building is being knocked down. Or I wouldn't be able tell you the colour of a building I've walked past 100 times.

I'm AMAZED by people who can describe people to police artists, and it ends up looking like the person they saw. I doubt I could describe myself that well. Or my husband. I just can't visualise faces like that at all.

I find it really hard to match names to faces and to picture someone's face. Even my own children I would struggle to describe to make a police photofit. I do recognise them immediately and people that I know I will recognise but I would struggle to describe them to anyone. Just can't even picture my best friends in my mind. It feels as if they are just out of reach.

What's so weird is how big the swing is for me from being brilliant at it to terrible at it! I once recognised someone on top of the Acropolis because I had pulled them a pint a couple of years previous in a pub in London. Then only a few months ago I didn't recognise an author who I'd spoken to for half an hour as they signed their books when they popped into the shop again the very next day. There's a definite threshold for me that is post-kids. And probably more specifically after my second - as I don't remember having the same problem recognising people in the busy hospital I was working in up until I went on maternity with my second. I think it's come to the fore recently because some of the things I rely on are compromised by mask-wearing: the way someone's mouth moves, the sound of their (unmuffled) voice, and other things they have chanced between interactions (glasses, hair colour or length etc). I have certain 'categories' of people I struggle with more: white, older men with white hair and average to portly build are almost entirely indistinguishable from one another even after multiple meetings. My colleagues write the names of certain important regular customers for me discretely on slips of paper when they come into the shop to save me embarrassment.

DH gets fed up with me when we're watching films etc, because if someone changes their clothes, or hairstyle, I don't always recognise them as the person in a previous scene.
He has excellent memory for faces, but can never remember people's names.
I am the complete opposite.

YES white, older men with white hair and average/portly build are the hardest. There are several very famous TV personalities like this who I just cannot tell apart. I think it's not helped by the fact that men of that generation also tend to dress alike (boring suits).

My sisters and I all suffer from facial blindness. I have no idea how people can describe other people's faces to the police for a sketch artist, I can't even bring up a picture of my husband in my head to be able to describe him. I struggle most with white males, children are easier as there's usually a distinguishing feature, or clothing, but men dressed in shirts or jeans just all look the same. My husband hates watching films with me as I'll never recognise anyone, he has to explain the plot to me. I watched love actually thinking it was about a cheating bastard because I didn't realise there were 2 different men involved in their own story lines!

I could describe someone to the police (I can picture them in my head), but I'd have no idea whether the image produced matched the real person or not.
Sometimes I can't even decide whether twins look alike or not when I have a photo of them, or they are standing in front of me!

I've heard a lot about prosopagnosia (I teach psychology) but have never heard of it arising after childbirth.

I don't want to be alarmist, but you might want to talk to the GP & see if you can get a referral to a neurologist for a brain scan. Just in case.

That's interesting. I only know of cases from a brain injury. I wonder if it's true face blindness (there are tests online I believe that you can take), for example would you recognize Marylin Monroe from her impersonator or Elvis?

@KittenKong

I’m crap at recognising people - especially if they are seen ‘out of context’. I did one of those online tests and no, I don’t have face blindness, I’m just really unobservant when it comes to human (I will remember every dog I meet in the park!)

I could have written this word for word exactly..( maybe I did?🤔🥴 ) This is me down to a tee and always has been.

In fashion magazines I can never recognise the same model on the same spread, with a different outfit or hairstyle. If the same model pops on a hat I've no chance.