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 struggle with this as well. I have gone up to the wrong parent as a child because my parent got a haircut, and because there were too many similar people standing together. I have misrecognised many people and staring at people often gets me in trouble even as a woman, plenty of people find reason to take offense from staring. I would like to improve my ability to recognise people, but how do you do that? If you don't mind me asking, what book are you reading? I would be interested in learning more.