Some People Can't Recognise Faces

We take a lot of things in our lives for granted, one of them being that we can recognise the people around us. Unfortunately, this is an ability not everyone has, specifically people with prosopagnosia, also called face blindness.

Face blindness is a rare cognitive disorder that makes recognising faces either impossible or challenging to different extents. Some people can recognise the people closest to them, while some can't even recognise their own children. Living with the disorder can be emotional and confusing, especially if you're constantly around new people.

Something people often struggle to understand when they're presented with the issue of face blindness, is that it's not that people will forget who they are, only what they look like. Sometimes people get offended or hurt upon hearing that I probably won't recognise them the next time I see them, because of my face blindness. As you can imagine, it's a lot of having the same conversation over and over again, which is an experience shared with many people who have disorders or disabilities. Getting people to understand can be a challenge.

Some common questions I often receive are whether I can see faces at all, what they look like to me and how I deal with it. People often imagine some kind of horror movie scenario where instead of seeing faces, people with face blindness see a blurred spot where the face should be, a distorted face or something like that. Fortunately, that's not the case. We can still see what people look like, we just can't remember it. This includes our own faces, not everyone can remember what they themselves look like.

When you go your whole life taking recognising people for granted, it's probably hard to imagine that some people simply don't have the ability to do it. It's common that their reaction is that it's a joke, it's a made-up condition or that you can just focus harder to recognise someone. It's natural for many people to challenge new information like this, but there's no cure or treatment for face blindness, and there's not really much people with the disorder can do to improve it. It's helpful when people wear flamboyant clothes and have fancy hair colours, though.

If you know someone with face blindness and want to make their life easier, here are a few things you can do. Whenever you're meeting them somewhere, you can tell them what you're wearing, so that it's easier for them to spot you in the crowd. If you're in a store with them, try not to get separated, as trying to find you again can be a bit exhausting or even anxiety-inducing. If you're watching a movie with them, allow them to ask you who someone is whenever they get confused. And, if they can't recognise your favourite celebrity, please go easy on them. They're trying their best.

Our society is becoming more and more aware, accepting and accommodating. An important part of this journey is educating people on different conditions that exist, as many of them are invisible and not a lot of people have heard of them. So the next time someone tells you they have face blindness, instead of thinking it might be a joke, you can now tell them that you actually know what it is.

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