Prosopagnosia / Face blindness
Discussion
Does anyone else suffer from this? I thought I’d share my story / insight..
I’m diagnosed as having developmental prosopagnosia. This means that I’m in the impaired range on at least two tests of face recognition. This condition is a neurological disorder characterised by the inability to recognise faces.
My results are as follows:
So at the age of 47, many many questions had been answered. Not being able to follow films – If the good guy and the bad guy have the same hair colour, size and shape, I get lost in the plot and switch off.
If I saw a colleague out of context in a supermarket for example, I would walk past them. I’d struggle to recognise my Mum, girlfriend, brother, in fact anyone I knew in the street.
In fact, now I’m diagnosed, I find the whole charade quite hilarious and have started outing my condition.
A positive point, is that I’m highly perceptive of people’s mannerisms. I recognise people by the way they walk, move their hands, dress, talk etc. This also means that if someone I recognise changes their mannerisms, I know something has changed and will be aware that some event has occurred to change their mood.
I’m still in awe of ‘Super recognisers’ who will remember people on holiday from ten years ago. It’s like a super power to me.
So, any fellow sufferers on here?
I’m diagnosed as having developmental prosopagnosia. This means that I’m in the impaired range on at least two tests of face recognition. This condition is a neurological disorder characterised by the inability to recognise faces.
My results are as follows:
So at the age of 47, many many questions had been answered. Not being able to follow films – If the good guy and the bad guy have the same hair colour, size and shape, I get lost in the plot and switch off.
If I saw a colleague out of context in a supermarket for example, I would walk past them. I’d struggle to recognise my Mum, girlfriend, brother, in fact anyone I knew in the street.
In fact, now I’m diagnosed, I find the whole charade quite hilarious and have started outing my condition.
A positive point, is that I’m highly perceptive of people’s mannerisms. I recognise people by the way they walk, move their hands, dress, talk etc. This also means that if someone I recognise changes their mannerisms, I know something has changed and will be aware that some event has occurred to change their mood.
I’m still in awe of ‘Super recognisers’ who will remember people on holiday from ten years ago. It’s like a super power to me.
So, any fellow sufferers on here?
So glad you got a diagnosis. I read this article not so long ago and it just blew me away: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53192821
Just goes to show that it's very easy to take for granted something that is almost impossible for a select few to the point you cannot compute the problem, hence a 47 year diagnosis!
Just goes to show that it's very easy to take for granted something that is almost impossible for a select few to the point you cannot compute the problem, hence a 47 year diagnosis!
Do you know you should know them, but can’t link them to a name? That’s my problem - I can meet someone a few months after working with them for years, I know the face, but I have no idea who it is. I have become adept at the use of “mate” until I pick apart enough of their background to work out who they are.
This has held me back at work as after a couple of months of no interaction I simply can put a name to the face, it's been a lot easier over lockdown as it's been 90% Teams meetings.
Didn't know this was a known medical condition, I can't even remember some of the short term ex girlfriends from over 15 years ago which has caused at least one embarrassing incident.
Didn't know this was a known medical condition, I can't even remember some of the short term ex girlfriends from over 15 years ago which has caused at least one embarrassing incident.
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