Scary experience! Has this happened to anyone?

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Hello, Community.

I am new here, my name is Eunice. I registered in January, but have not been on my computer much, so have not been active. Anyhoo, I have a question. I want to know if anyone else has experienced what happened to me.

I know sometimes I have difficulty recognizing faces if the persons are new to me, or they are people I don't know well, and I see them out of context. I also find that I can hyperfocus when working alone on a task at times, to the point that I am somewhat disoriented if interrupted. However, in the situation I am referring to, I was at work (I work as a produce clerk) stocking apples. If you don't pay attention to what you are doing, they can topple down. A coworker arrived, and for about 4 seconds, I could not recognize him! I did not know his name, or the context in which I knew him. I thought that maybe he was someone I worked with on a previous job, but even though in fact we worked for the same company previously, I only met him at our current store. I knew he was familiar but could not recall how. This was terrifying, as it has never happened to me with someone I knew well, talked with every day, and am very familiar with their face. It reminded me of a time where I had fainted, hit my head, and lost my short-term memory for several minutes.

I had been diagnosed with Aspergers, and am wondering if anyone else on the spectrum has experienced this. I am uneasy, because my mother developed early onset dememtia, and as I turn 48 years old this month, I am concerned about that for me, as well. I am wondering if what I described is a brain-on-autism sort of experience, or if I need to consult a neurologist! Thanks, folks.

you eventually placed him, something you'd not likely be able to do with dementia.

Has happened to me frequently. Always when they are out of context. Or their clothes or hair are set in unfamiliar patterns.

Example, two weeks ago someone at my local pet food store (I make a point of going on days she works, because we like to chat about my pets) got off the city bus while I was getting on - about a block from the store. She said hi, and I was absolutely confused about who she was. About 5 minutes later I placed her / it was her winter hat that threw me off (I think) because I'm used to seeing her long brown hair / it was analyzing the memory of her voice that clued me in (I think). And I've been going there - and she's been working there - for at least two years (and I shop there at least twice a month) so it isn't like I don't know her.

Boy was I nervous the next time I went in / embarrassed and I apologized to her profusely. She forgave me.

I think.

Heh, you should read about prosopagnosia. I have that (as do quite a lot of people with ASDs) and that kind of confusion is everyday fare for us! Of course, life-long faceblind people are a good deal more used to it, so they might identify people by voice, hairstyle, location, or check for a nametag. Lots of little tricks--even the way people move and the way they smell can help. And with enough practice, most faceblind people learn to recognize people who are very close to them, like family and one or two best friends, even out of context.

Maybe what happened with you was that you were mentally in apple-stacking mode, and it took a while for you to switch gears to social mode. I know I have a lot of trouble transitioning. But I don't think you're faceblind, if you were so surprised at not recognizing your co-worker. I think it was more of a momentary brain glitch for you.

I've been doing that all my life. Not going to start worrying about it now.

The thing that threw me so badly was that he was *not* out of context. He was just arriving at work, where I see him every day. If this were a 'person out of context' situation, it would not have frightened me so much. Does this ever happen to folks when the person is within normal context, and no changes to their appearance?

Yeah. I worked cleaning a church once, and I thought for the longest time that we only had one church secretary. It turned out, when one day I saw them all at once, that we had three. They were all light-haired, middle-aged women with soft voices. Oops!

Happens to me all the time. I call it a "brain fart".

Brain Fart:
When you are attempting to remember something very obvious, someting that you know you should know. This feeling often leads to head banging and hair pulling.
Bobby raised his hand to answer the teacher's question only to find that he had had a brain fart, and he was unable to answer 2+2. ~ Urban Dictionary

yeah, I have the same problem. I once did not recognise my teacher I had had for 2 years 4 days a week when I saw her in the dentist.

the only reason I know it was her is that she said she saw me when I came back to college, I was in the waiting room in the dentist for 20min and did not recognise her, it was because she had had a hair cut, it is very freaky when that happens.

its called prosopagnosia, it varies in severity, you would be quite mild as would I, some people don't even recognise their own children or parents and rely entirely on the voice of people to recognise them.

I believe there is some correlation between face blindness and Asperger's from what I have read.

Yeah like they said search for prosopagnosia. Don't worry I have it too. But you can always try to recognize people by their hair or the way they walk or talk. Sometimes there are those weird situations when for instance it takes me 3 seconds to recognize my cousin but oookay many people with aspergers have it too.

Dementia is related to damage the brain, usually a disease process of which parts of the brain essentially disintegrate, causing short term memory loss which can progress into executive functioning loss and inability to care for oneself.

A person loses inhibition and acts in a manner of which they may typically not. Their long term memory however often stays in tact, confusing family as to why they remember their Childhood friends names but not that they saw their child 10 mins ago.

It's irreversible (information I hope you would know by now, if not I apologize). It is not a wiring malfunction or anything like autism aside from some similarities in behaviour.

You can not place a person initially with dementia, then be able to place them after a min. It's possible especially if that person is remembered in the long term memory, what you wouldn't place is the changes in their face or hair or clothing.

I suggest seeing your dr if you're concerned.

I wouldn't risk it personally. If it is dementia, there are drugs out there designed to slow down the process; research states that good exercise and healthy eating can slow down the process or lessen the chances of someone getting dementia earlier in life.

I work in long term care (I'm a social service worker) and have dementia teaching by one of the for most educations in dementia and dementia related behaviours - having traveled all around canada and the us giving lectures to thousands of healthcare professionals.

Yes. This happens to me quite a bit. Sometimes, I have trouble recognizing people's voices too.