Yes, I experience faceblindness. When I was younger, I hadn't even realized what it was, that I 'had it', or that there was a name for it...that it was/is a 'condition'. I went a long time thinking everybody else saw (or, maybe more accurately, DIDN'T SEE) the same way I did/do. Back then, I instinctively used context and people's habitual ways of doing things to hasten a recognition of them. Now that I know faceblindness isn't a 'norm' and that others often 'punish' those who fail to recognize them (and quickly), I've gotten a bit more proactive...have taken the previously instinctual behavior and have turned it into a more 'fine-tuned' identifying 'mechanism'. Determining (more formally) what does and doesn't work for ME in recognizing others has been crucial for self-preservation in general. It's also helped me tremendously in shifting focus (and verbal accusations such as 'you're not paying attention' or 'you've got a bad attitude') away from what I 'DON'T' see, to better underscore what I DO see and what I am aware of -- which, in turn, takes away (some of) the irony of Aspies being 'praised' for noticing details while (often simultaneously) being criticized for being 'inattentive'. ....Incidentally, I've found that 'level' of recognition success/'failure' has NOT been affected by whether or not I've made eye contact, studied/scrutinized an individual's face, or if a trauma's involved during interaction (i.e. witnessing a robbery). The soonest I've ever been able to 'overcome' the 'blindness' is after having met/interacted with someone a minumum of 6 times (without a cap, a significant change in hairstyle, etc.) - though it often takes longer/more times than that, or having been able to 'study' a photograph for some weeks before meeting someone in person (again, without significant changes from appearance in photograph), or, as mentioned by another post-er, meeting/interacting with someone who strongly resembles somebody from my past (which brings along the necessary task of matching appearance to new/different mental 'records').
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