Do you live with face blindness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have this and I also have a terrible directional sense--I feel like they're somehow related

Same. I can’t remember if it was anecdotal or from a study but I remember reading that people with face blindness often have trouble with their sense of direction and being able to identify makes and models of cars. I also have aphantasia (and was told here that isn’t a real thing), but it doesn’t seem like aphantasia and prosopagnosia are related. Some people have one, some have both, most have neither, and no one really seems to understand why or how any of it works.

There's a great podcast episode that opened my eyes to this on Science Vs. titled Aphantasia: Missing the Mind's eye.

I have a truly terrible sense of direction. No trouble with faces, but being aware of prosopagnosia, I give grace to those who never remember me or for that matter, my name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You just deal with it.

I rely heavily on hairstyle and clothes to identify people and even then I generally wait for them to greet me first.

Hair cuts are the worst. One time a friend with curly hair had her hair in top bun and I couldn’t recognize her

Minor changes throw me off. I never get it when one actor is playing identical twins but with different hair styles. Like the insurance product commercial with the actor playing her sister, had no idea it was the same actor or that the characters were meant to be twins.

The odd thing is, I am very aware about how people can have small similar attributes. I see the pieces but not the whole. Like those kid books with different pages of eyes, lips, noses to mix up. I can see my sibling friends have the same checkbones, that cousins have the same thin upper lip, or my brother's jaw is like Kurt Russell in a specific movie.

Ha! I don’t think I have face blindness, but I rely heavily on context, hair color, height, etc. So your first paragraph describes me watching Orphan Black where the same actress plays several clones. DH would say “that’s another clone,” and I’d be like— “but her hair is blonde. Are you sure?” Same actress.

Also, when I was younger, I didn’t understand that people meant when they said siblings looked alike unless they had the same exact hair and same eye color. People meant facial features, but I couldn’t understand how they could tell.

That said, I do recognize friends and family just fine. If I saw a famous actor on the street, I’d have no idea who it was.

This is me. I watched the old Parent Trap a while back and honestly the two Hayley Millses looked the same to me. I liked Orphan Black but I sometimes needed context clues (or my spouse) to help me when they introduced a new clone. I know close people, but if you're someone I worked with a few years ago and you show up unexpectedly? I'll be lost.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in college and dated a guy like this for a few weeks. She said she saw him talking to another girl in a way that clearly indicated he didn’t recognize he wasn’t talking to her, and it really weirded her out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in college and dated a guy like this for a few weeks. She said she saw him talking to another girl in a way that clearly indicated he didn’t recognize he wasn’t talking to her, and it really weirded her out.

Say what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember spending a whole movie checking with dh who’s who. Forgot who the actors where, but they had same haircuts and hair / skin / eye colors.

CItizen Kane!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have this and I also have a terrible directional sense--I feel like they're somehow related

I am face blind but have great sense of direction. Directions are orderly.

[Anonymous]

I think it would especially as one gets older…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember spending a whole movie checking with dh who’s who. Forgot who the actors where, but they had same haircuts and hair / skin / eye colors.

CItizen Kane!

Any mission impossible movie. I'm not allowed to watch them anymore or others around me will murder me for my questions/confusion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in college and dated a guy like this for a few weeks. She said she saw him talking to another girl in a way that clearly indicated he didn’t recognize he wasn’t talking to her, and it really weirded her out.

Say what?

+1. I'm going to need more information. This will be the new cheating excuse du jour instead of ADHD or ASD. "your honour, her breasts looked and felt exactly like my wife's!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember spending a whole movie checking with dh who’s who. Forgot who the actors where, but they had same haircuts and hair / skin / eye colors.

Same. I hate when they have like three main female characters all with poufy brown hair and brown eyes. And there’s no need for them all to look alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea that there was a name for this until maybe 10 years ago. I'm relieved to know that it's not just me. I'm an expert at teasing out enough details about a person until enough is revealed and I know who I'm talking to. You know how, in detective shows, the victim has to describe the perpetrator and then a sketch artist renders a likeness of that person? The same person could rob me 10 times and I'd probably have a sense that it was the same person, but I could never describe their face.

DH always says I’d be the worst witness to a crime. Not only could I not identify anyone, but I wouldn’t know which direction they went because I’m equally bad at faces and directions.

Adding to that is I just don’t really pay attention to what’s around me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea that there was a name for this until maybe 10 years ago. I'm relieved to know that it's not just me. I'm an expert at teasing out enough details about a person until enough is revealed and I know who I'm talking to. You know how, in detective shows, the victim has to describe the perpetrator and then a sketch artist renders a likeness of that person? The same person could rob me 10 times and I'd probably have a sense that it was the same person, but I could never describe their face.

DH always says I’d be the worst witness to a crime. Not only could I not identify anyone, but I wouldn’t know which direction they went because I’m equally bad at faces and directions.

Same. Or what the getaway car is. Best I got is "blue SUV". Whoever mentioned that as a correlating factor is spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have this and I also have a terrible directional sense--I feel like they're somehow related

Same. I can’t remember if it was anecdotal or from a study but I remember reading that people with face blindness often have trouble with their sense of direction and being able to identify makes and models of cars. I also have aphantasia (and was told here that isn’t a real thing), but it doesn’t seem like aphantasia and prosopagnosia are related. Some people have one, some have both, most have neither, and no one really seems to understand why or how any of it works.

There's a great podcast episode that opened my eyes to this on Science Vs. titled Aphantasia: Missing the Mind's eye.

I have a truly terrible sense of direction. No trouble with faces, but being aware of prosopagnosia, I give grace to those who never remember me or for that matter, my name.

Thanks so much! I listened and learned and felt validated.