Having below average facial recognition can be a bitch.
And, ironically, I'm dating someone who has it worse than me. (
can't even recognize different actors in a movie if they look even vaguely familiar.)
(source)
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!
(source)
*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)
(source)
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!!!!