I Love Meaningful Conversations

@DaveyTaco The inability to recognize faces. In popular speak "Face Blindness" which isn't exactly descriptive because 'we' can see faces, but just not remember them and identify people by them.

@Lucia that's me I have the hardest time remembering faces to names .

@Repete Not necessarily the same. If you recognize someone and positively know that it is someone you know then it is likely not prosopagnosia (as far as I know). Prosopagnosia in its most severe forms means you can't recognize yourself, close family or even your children. But you will know names the same as everybody else once you figure out an identifier.

The brain is a weird part of the body.

@Lucia I knew that was to easy 😂

@Lucia that must be hard to live with. Sometimes ill see someone i know and their name will be on the tip of my tongue. But yeah.

@DaveyTaco I dont recognize anyone including my family members. I can manage when someone is where I expect them to be, like coworkers at work or husband at home, but I still have troubles sometimes.

@Lucia perfectly explained. I have had it for years. The not recognizing my kids and grandkids is heartbreaking.

I can manage, I seem to recognize voices pretty well.

@Serendipitylife im so sorry buddy. Your husband must really love you (:

@DaveyTaco The thing is though that most people with prosopagnosia gets overwhelmingly good at compensating by either recognizing people on other indicators like location, hairstyle, style of fashion, how they walk, how they talk etc. On top of that skills like having conversations where you pretend to know how you're talking to is highly developed. I can talk to people for half an hour without knowing who they are - and putting in questions that will help me identify them without them knowing.

Things like parties or social events are usually a drain on the energy level because you are at an event and try keeping track of who's who throughout the event. It's not completely uncommon for me to sleep for 12-14 hours after such events.


@Serendipitylife Did yours develop after an accident or something like that? I had it all life, but it was only discovered a few years ago. I just always thought everybody was like me.

@Lucia Mine was brought on by a trauma when I was a toddler, they think. My mother was convinced i was mentally disabled. At first i did not even recognize color. We had an African American neighbor and I was always confusing her with my mother, who was so fair skinned she practically glowed in the dark. But they had the same build and hair style.

I do as you do. I use indicators such as place and hairstyle. But when my husband shaves his beard I am constantly startled by him.

My kids thought it was funny to mess with me when I would go pick them up at school or the mall. They knew I could not recognize them unless they talk to me. Outwardly I would laugh but honestly I felt a bit broken hearted inside. I would never tell them that.

It is very frustrating for my husband sometimes. When my son came home early from deployment to surprise me, I did not recognize him standing in my dinning room. The really made my husband mad. But what can I do. If they dont talk and I dont expect them, I am completely lost.