andrea

tel: 954-761-3444
fax: 954-761-1524
website:www//ralphbehr.com

I work at Mcdonalds (pity me) and I’ve had one incident where I was serving and my mum came in for some reason and she waited in the queue and made her order on the till directly next to mine. But I didn’t recognise her in the queue, let alone when she was next to me. It was only when she left that I realised it was her, because of her hair.

Actually, i recently had a bad experience due to face blindness. At work, I confused a number of orders when i was told to hand food out of the drivethru window. The problem was that in three consecutive cars, the driver was wearing the same uniform. I had to tell the first car to park, then I ended up givign their drinks to the second car because I thought it was the first. Luckily they told me, or I would have been entirely oblivious. It took a good ten minutes for my managers to sort out the problem and I was given a warning in the office. All because I couldn’t tell them apart.

I can basically tell people apart due to their location, hair style, clothing, buildg, occasionally their mannerisms and their voices. Their faces become meaningless after a few seconds of parting. I mean, going back to work, I tend to forget what the person looks like ten seconds into the next order.

The other thing she has done with her roommates has been to explain this condition to them and ask them to help her with cues when they meet someone or have a visitor, “Oh hi, Jim! Susan, I’m sure you remember Jim from the dining hall yesterday.” Or if it’s someone they’ve known for a while, just being sure to incorporate his or her name in the first sentence of greeting. It can be done unobtrusively and her roommates have been helpful so far.

Her face blindness is complicated by short term memory loss, so even if she does recognize people after repeated exposure (professors, boy friend, etc.), when she hasn’t seen them for a few weeks or sees them out of context she no longer recognizes them. It’s so hard for people to understand that she’s not being rude or self-absorbed.

But prosopagnosia affects people in slightly different ways, and perhaps with acquired faceblindness using photographs would work okay for her.

Personally, it really helps to know ahead of time who is going to be at a social interaction, and of course I really like name tags if they are worn where they can be read!

andrea

My sister suggested that she sign on to Facebook.com and add those she meets to her “Friends” list, with a private indexation kept of how she knows them, who they are, and any other tips to help her recall them. No one thinks twice of someone her age having a Facebook page, and she can review photos to try to jog her memory or put someone in context. She can take pictures of people she knows and upload them to her own page, with labels and explanations to help her in the future. I hope this helps others, and we are always looking for ideas and ways to help her cope with this condition. Suggestions welcomed!!

Kate said in December that she has trouble recognizing white men and was concerned that it would be taken as racial. It wouldn’t be taken that way by a lot of people.

I have wished that I could explain to black people, who I have not recognized, that it isn’t that they “all look alike” in a uncaring way. But, that white people look alike to me, also. That is, unless they have a very distinctive feature, like being the only redhead in the entire room.

andrea

I just came across another instance of how Prosopagnosia affects me, for the first time in 6 decades I had a wonderful birthday, I, or rather my 40 tonne truck, was stuck in the fisherman/women’s blockade in Cherbourg for three days, I let out that my birthday was the second day.

The Irish, British and South African, (there are a lot of South African drivers working in European Haulage), drivers got together with Veronique, who works in the bar in the terminal and they presented me with a splay of flowers, a couple of presents, a special drink, (Veronique special), and a birthday cake.

I handed my digi camera to a driver and asked him to take some photos of us all, I downloaded them onto my laptop which I have in the cab.

I came back to UK then Ireland on the ferry from Santander to Poole, a driver at the table I was having a meal at started talking about my birthday party, having my laptop with me I opened up the photos’ to see his face sitting next me, I had completely forgotten what he looked like although I knew I knew him.

Fortunately I managed to pretend I knew who he was all along, maybe we should aim at being abler to say, “sorry, I have prosopagnosia”.

Rachael Webb

PS my spell check doesn’t recognise the word or have I got the spelling wrong? I am also partially dyslexic.

Prosopagnosia is simply not well known! Most of us have struggled through the years, not realising the extent of our dificulties (after all, those of us who were born with the condition have no means of comparison, unlike those who acquired it through traumatic brain injury), and have always felt that it was somehow a personality fault or moral failing. In truth, our brains simply don’t work quite right, like someone who has color blindness.

A neurologist is more likely to be aware of the issue as a problem with brain functioning, than would a psychotherapist who is more inclined to view difficulties as manifestations of personality disorders.

You can find online tests via the Prosopagnosia Research Center.

andrea

This could be true but then it becomes the cause of the diagnosis, asuming there is no such thing as face blindnes? Which there is, just as most therapists and those engaged in psychotherapy seem to find it necessary to deny, maybe because it is not yet in any or the textbooks on psychology?

Rachael Webb
Co Limerick

Life is good…

“Ginn”
In Sunny Santa Fe
Read my Journals: http://www.pulverpages.com