Difficulty recognising faces

Post Reply New Topic

I can never be sure. Especially if I see someone outside the area I normally see them. I used to do on-site computer work. It was great, because I knew everyone at every place, and remembering who was whom wasn't hard. But sometimes a client would drop by the shop to pay a bill or buy something. Whenever that happened I usually managed to mistake them for someone else. I learned to either hide around the corner or discuss non-specific things with them until I was 100% sure I knew who it was. And even then sometimes I got it wrong!

My wife once got a haircut that looked rather like the same haircut as a girl at my high school had years earlier. When she did that, she looked EXACTLY like that girl in my mind, until I dug out the yearbook and saw that the haircut was really the only thing in common... That was disturbing enough that she's never cut her hair like that again.

I have extreme difficulty recognizing faces, particularly if I only meet the person once or twice. I have always attributed most of the problem to my not making initial eye contact.

If I never had a good look originally, I guess I could not expect to remember the face afterwards.

Other than people I have some form of relationship with (coworker, friend, etc), I can't really remember people.

I'm in the Army, and everyone wears a nametag (thank god), and I still can't recognize people. I remember unusual names tho. At our base, we have a Woodcock (female), fa***t (male), Major Dick (male - name with rank) to name a few.

I don't remember if I've seen someone before, unless there is something unusual about them (wearing uniform improperly, ... markedly nice physical features o.o..., etc) Even then, I generally dont remember their face.

And of course, I can NEVER put a face to name unless I know them well.

I have the same problem. One of my very first memories is at the age of 3 when I was in nursery school and we had to walk with a partner to the local primary school to hear a story. On the way back for some reason I had lost my partner and the teachers asked me who my partner had been on the way. I looked around at all these little blank faces which all looked exactly the same to me and didnt know which one had been my partner. I guess this also highlights the fact that I didnt have any friends at that age, otherwise someone would have come forward to claim me!

When I first started secondary school it took months for me to distinguish between all the boys in my class (the girls were easier as they had different haircuts, but the boys were either brown/black haired or blonde (and one redhead who I could recognise solely for this fact) and otherwise the same). My sister has the same problem, but she is definately NT, so its not just an Aspie thing, but probably linked.

Some films and TV programs can be difficult too - if there are a load of men in suits, for example, all with similar hair, I can get a bit confused as to who's who.

Names can be difficult too - I might remember a bunch of names and get to know the faces, but putting the names back with the faces can be confusing for a bit.

At one place of work, for example, there were (I won't use full names):

Bb
Ma
My
Ge
An
Ml
Kt

- I got Bb straight away because he had a moutache and always wore one of three identical blue t-shirts - thanks Bb! .
- I thought Ma was My and My was Ma - they were both black, but were completely different (I could tell them apart, I just got the names the wrong way round).
- I thought Ge was called Aw, even though there wasn't an Aw (both names remind me of a crayon).
- An I remembered.
- I don't think I was certain of Ml.
- Kl I think I got easily.

The faces weren't too difficult to remember. The slightly tricky ones were My, Ma and Ml. Bb was easy.

Funny, I'm actually very good at recognising faces. Awful with names though.

I have to learn the name first before seeing the face to be able to learn names easily.