Published on 12, July, 2020
It's dawned on me in the last day or two that I have some form of facial blindness. The people who assessed me don't know this and I'd never thought about this before.
* I bumped into an acquaintance at the supermarket. It took me a couple of seconds to recognise her, which made my conversation awkward. We both kind of went our own ways after me mumbling something like "I'm just doing a bit of shopping". It is odd that I didn't immediately recognise her as she is quite distinctive looking.
* I'm reading a book on ASD and the writer said something about facial recognition difficulty. I always put this down to my bad eyesight, but I realised last night that if I see someone out of context, I'm slow to twig who they are. This looks strange to other people, and I don't always know what to say. I think it probably looks hostile or aloof.
Here's the weird thing. I do remember a lot of people's faces, but not always when I need to. I spotted an actor in "Elementary" was the hippie in "Withnail and I". I spotted a woman in church and knew she was a journalist, because her picture appears in the paper.
But then I bump into someone I was at school with in a strange town, and I don't recognise them.
Once or twice I have looked at someone to see if it's someone I knew, and people have taken it the wrong way.
Tonight I was on a date and I had to look around the room.at least twice to find her, even though she was right in front of me.
I've suffered from face blindness my entire life and it is very embarrassing when someone greets me by name and I have no idea who they are or where they know me from.
I usually cope by making an effort to remember features of people I expect to see in the future, such as cloths, hair style, distinctive jewelry etc.
I also mentioned face blindness on my PIP application, the assessor ignored it completely and never included in the report.