Having below average facial recognition can be a bitch.
And, ironically, I'm dating someone who has it worse than me. (@shenanigator can't even recognize different actors in a movie if they look even vaguely familiar.)
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What the heck is Prosopa....wait...how do you even pronounce that word?
Pro-zoh-pagh-no-zsha. Simply put, it's the inability to recognize faces. At its worst, you wouldn't be able to recognize your own reflection in a mirror. Most estimate that there is 2.5% of the US population running around with some degree of Prosopagnosia.What does it do?
To me? Thankfully, I don't have it terribly bad, but it still requires me to see an average-looking person* around 10 times before I would see them as "familiar." Even then, if I saw that same person outside of the context that I normally see them (i.e. seeing someone from the office at the grocery store), I probably wouldn't realize who it is. Not to mention if they were to get a haircut or something—forget it!
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*Unless the person has an incredibly unique feature, like a handlebar mustache, piercings, or squiggly eyebrows, I just see them as another average passerby. This can lead to some awkward situations, but I'll get to that...
What Prosopagnosia is NOT
If you think I see blurry faces walking around everywhere, I don't. They're not blank either. I see 100% of the features and details everyone else does, my brain just doesn't hold them all together as a recognizable image unless I've seen them many times. (That's not the case for everyone, though. Some people won't recognize a face even if they've seen it a hundred times.) Prosopagnosia is also not:- A brain injury. That's not the case for everyone, but my brain is and has always worked basically fine. ('Cept Drunk Brittany, she's cray-cray. lol)
- A choice. I can't just "try harder" to remember peoples' faces. Believe me, I've tried, though.
- Curable. In fact, many therapies and medical routes have been pursued, but none have shown lasting improvements among Prosopagnosics. (source)
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Well, That's Awkward
Ah, yes. Those uncomfortable moments I mentioned earlier. There are many. In fact, I've unintentionally distanced a lot of friends because of Prosopagnosia. When I see someone out of context and look at them with an expressionless face...the type of face you make when walking by all other randos during the day...people tend to get a little butthurt. In their defense, it does seem like I'm giving them the cold shoulder or ignoring them for some reason. Truth is, I'm not even sure how many times this has happened because only a handful of people came up to me later to say something like...I stopped talking to you because I thought you were mad at me or something. You walked by me at < insert location > and didn't even acknowledge me.
Oh, right... you wanted the embarrassing stuff. That. Ahem. Well...
Those are situations when someone does come up to me in the real world—outside of the context I've known them thus far, or hell, maybe I have known them in this context—and they know my name, favorite type of fruit, and my 1st grade best friend's eye color, yet I have NO CLUE who the stalkerish stranger is in front of me. Yikes.
In these situations, I try my darndest to find any clues before they realize. The sound of their voice? Clothing? Something they said? A question they asked?
HELP, FACE GODS, FUCKING HELP ME!!!!
I saw a girl on tv who did not even recognize her mother. She was a very scared girl. Inconceivable that this exists. Nice post :-)
Yep, that's definitely the worst of it! I feel super thankful that I have the "watered down" version.
I'm good with faces but terrible with names. In one brain cell and out the other.
I always laugh at my girlfriend because she always says someone looks like someone famous. I ask her what drugs she's smoking. "Because you have to be fucking high".
Maybe this is the problem.
How does someone get diagnosed?
That sounds a LOT like prosopagnosia, but I'm no doctor. I've definitely thought a person looked like someone else I know (or even a celebrity) until I've seen them enough times that whatever feature(s) I thought looked like them don't seem so close anymore.
Perhaps you guys can try this Google search. I'd also look at "celebrity look-alikes" where it's obvious to you that it's two different people, but perhaps it might not be to her.
probably to not recognized faces it's a little bit of lack of human caring, however i had experience that too sometimes but i overall yes i can recognized faces
very interesting blog , if i can give you a rate between 1 to 10 then you earn a 10 :)
That's like saying someone who is deaf just doesn't care to listen when people are having conversations. I appreciate the high rating, though.
well you did an excellent work , are you a student of college or a teacher ?
Hi, nice post :) upvoted and followed you :) would you ?
any chance there is a psycho-somatic connection between this and your digestive issues? I have no clue, but it's an interesting hypothesis. Who knows, the body/brain are weird dudes.
Same with the photographic memory. Perhaps your brain depletes or over produces certain enzymes that are needed elsewhere.
Im no doctor, im just a rambler
You know... that is a super interesting theory. Come to think of it, I don't recall having these issues until around my senior year in high school or freshman year in college. It's possible I just didn't make the connection that it was happening, but then again, my health issues started around sophomore year. 🤔
Wowza, mind BLOWN. What if...
Nice post :) I suspect that I started slowly develop prosopagnosia and my theory is that we are surrounded with so much things to memorize and focus on that our brain simply doesn't consider it important to remember faces unless they are repeatedly being seen. But I don't know this is just my theory :)
Oh definitely! We are bombarded with so many things these days, I'm sure it could be partly a coping mechanism for some people. Not sure that's the case for me. Even if someone I've known for years gets a haircut or shaves off their facial hair and I see them in an unexpected place, I'm hard pressed to recognize them. (Unless they were to come up and start talking to me and give other context clues.)
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