faces in a crowd

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I'm a 40 year old high functioning autistic, I was wondering if anyone has experience in regards to 'face blindness' also called Prosopagnosia.
I'm interested if anyone here often find themselves mistaking strangers as someone familiar especially in busy places where I repeatedly recognize faces yet they are complete strangers. The other side of this, is that I often struggle to recognize people I do know, like I have to look for clues to identify who the person is.

Yes, I have this. I cannot recognize faces at all. If I see someone I know out of their usual environment/context, I have no idea who they are.

Strangely, though, I can recognize animals. I once saw a neighbour in the lobby and didn't recognize him, then I looked at his dog and immediately knew who they both were.

I until recently thought I were just unable to visualize faces, but able to recognize them well but it seems my mind has only played tricks on me. That I just notice other clues, mostly the situation probably, and then my mind tricks me. You see before Christmas I signed up for a 1-day lab-course in biology to prepare for my exam (As I mentioned I improved some grades by reading on my own). There was this short blonde teacher (I looked him up on the web later so now I remember that much) who had the course. Two weeks later I met the same guy (it's often like that in small towns) and another neutral teacher for my exam in biology (Do not know what it's called in English, but it was an exam which included showing of some lab work and speaking about a random topic). Anyway a week after that again I met a new guy for the same pre-exam course in chemistry (this was a tall black-haired dude). The very same evening after the day I actually had that chemistry exam (it was postponed several times since he was sick). And just like in biology I knew that the guy I had the chemistry course with would be 1 of the 2 teacher who would evaluate me and ask me questions during the exam. As I were standing in the lobby of the school trying to figure out where I was going I saw two teachers walking in, talking to each other about some exam related stuff. There were no doubt in my mind that one of them were the dude I just met a few hours before, the chemistry teacher, so I nodded my head at him. I expected him to say hi and tell me to follow him or something, but he just smiled at me and kept walking. So I followed him through the building and into a room with other pupils. After a while I knew I were at the wrong place, because everyone around me were reading biology which seemed odd while waiting to be called into a chemistry exam. So I went sort of confused out in the hall and then I noticed the actual chemistry-teacher. Turns out there were still other people having their biology exams that day. So I guess all my brain figured when I first saw him walking into the school was "have I seen that man before - yes", and "does he fit the expected environment and behavior of the chemistry teacher I know will arrive here soon - yes". Because it turns out they could not have looked more different, and as mentioned I had seen the chemistry teacher for several hours the very same day! Freaked me out that I apparently are that bad at faces, and that it's still almost impossible to realize it yourself. Perception truly is way more than just the raw impression.

Yes I hav trouble recognizing faces, and its awfully embarrassing. I've walked up to strangers a number of times and other times I struggle to recognize people I should know. It seems to be a combination of feeling uncomfortable with eye contact and looking directly at people (so I don't take in all of their facial features), and also needing more time to study people's faces without the stress of direct social interactions. Other people seem to immediaty get a mental image of a face and store the knowledge indefinitely. I hav little trouble recognizing celebrities because I hav plenty of time to stare at them stress-free. But then I can't remember most of their names.

I more so identify people by clothing, accessories, manner of walking, and use the sound of their voice as confirmation as to who they are. This sounds overly complicated to me, but it often is that involved.

Last edited by LizNY on 06 Feb 2013, 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i can recognize faces pretty ok, as long as there is one clearly defined face in front of me (i dont know how or which aspects i focus on though), but put a few faces together, and it becomes some weird comb-mould thingy that doesn't even look like a face anymore. i am able to maintain fake eyecontact in that situation becouse i extrapolate and 'guess' where the eyes should be.

as for crowds; i cant even tell if they are western, asian, painted or wearing masks, just one big blur

I have real difficulty recognising faces of people I don't see very often or whose faces I haven't "studied" due to either closeness or pictures being readily available online. For example, I was staying with my uncle some time ago and he organised to pick me up in town. A car pulled up and I greeted the man inside - only for him to tell me I had the wrong person. The more I looked at the people around me, the more they started to all look like variations of one person. This happens to me a lot.

I'm pretty nervous about this and err on the side of caution, preferring not to point out a stranger accidentally. I greet people or speak about them being somewhere only when I am absolutely certain.

I used to think I did not have this, but then realized that I sometimes do--it's not regular, but perhaps associated with a relatively high degree of fatigue. Then I just can't recognize the person in front of me, even though I know them quite well. I think I really offended and disturbed a couple of people with this. It's irregular but very uncomfortable when it happens. I don't recall thinking that I knew a stranger, but I have behaved as if people I knew were strangers and perhaps hurt their feelings unintentionally.

I never recognize people when I don't expect to meet them. And usually I don't remember faces if I don't see them at least once a week. But it's more or less ok for me, as most people remember me due to my kind of strange look and behavior, and pretty often I take part in "many-to-one" events, e.g. where I take part in some contest or conference and many people are audience, nobody expect I would remember everyone I meet.

Although I tend to walk looking down, when I look up, I sometimes see a familiar face. It often turns out to be a face similar to a familiar face. Still it makes me uncomfortable because of the off-chance that it actually is someone I know. Maybe that's the reason why I tend to be looking down in a crowded place.

This used to happen to me before but not lately. I would stare at them and they'd still look exactly like someone I knew well. It was very weird.

Its only recently that I discovered I was not the only person in the world with this problem.
Unless someone is exactly where I last saw them, with the same clothes and hairstyle, I haven't a clue!
I have walked past people I have known for 10 years because they changed their hairstyle.
The enforcement of school uniform when I was a child was a social death sentence.

Although I have joked with my partner that I would be blameless if I ran off with Brad Pitt because it would be a genuine error (OH is a great big hairy bloke so even I couldn't really confuse them)

me too. i get confused because there are so many places i can know someone from. i just figure if I should be interacting they will initiate then I hope for a verbal clue to who they are are how i know them. it's pretty uncomfortable. add to that i find familiarity in strange faces and even faces on TV, very confusing. I live in a friendly part of the country where people usually look at each other and smile and say "Hi" even if you are a stranger so I just try my best to go with that.

I have a delay in recognition when seeing people out of their normal context. I live in a small town, so it happens enough to feel very awkward.

that's the worst. if i have to talk to someone out of their normal context i get particularly flustered. Like they aren't the Pharmacist at the County Fair, they are some rock star and i'm stuttering lol Or if i can't place who they are I fixate and drive DH crazy. Is that my 3rd grade teacher? A friend of my mother? Someone I used to see on the train? etc etc

I have always had a problem with this.

Greeting people thinking they are someone I thought I knew only to find out they're a complete stranger.
Not recognising people I know for a variety of reasons like change of hairstyle, clothing or wearing glasses.
Seeing people in a place where I am not used to seeing them also causes problems with recognition.
It can be very embarrassing.