What is your memory like for faces?

[neil_merseyside]

Indeed!

Each of my parents had a miserable final year and I am determined not to go through that same long pitiful process. I have already told everyone that cares about me that if I am suffering and have no hope of recovery then I am going to put a stop to it, or get someone else to even if that means shipping me off to somewhere with a more enlightened attitude towards assisted dying.

I want to 'like' (in a trendy way) this post, except like/thumbs etc don't seem right, so I think we need an agree button. I lost my dad long before he died, mum went a bit too early but easily(IYSWIM) I hope I follow her lead.

 

[ColinJ]

Yeah but some don’t age well and the features you would pick up on are changed beyond recognition.

He was a heavy smoker and drinker, which definitely aged him a lot. Once I found out who he was I started to 'see' the younger version of him in my mind's eye.

 

[ColinJ]

I want to 'like' (in a trendy way) this post, except like/thumbs etc don't seem right, so I think we need an agree button. I lost my dad long before he died, mum went a bit too early but easily(IYSWIM) I hope I follow her lead.

I agree about an 'agree' button as long as we didn't also have a 'disagree' button, which would probably lead to even more bickering than we sometimes get now.

Shame about your dad... I was at a pub once with two brothers and they were talking about their dad in such a way that I thought he must have died, but nobody had told me. One of them instantly responded with "His body is still alive, but 'he' died last year when he could no longer remember any of his family or friends." I thought it was harsh at the time but I've come to see it that way myself.

 

[winjim]

Awful. I simply can't recognise people out of context, even some people that I know very well. But I don't need to, I'm autistic, I'm not interested in small talk. I'll chat to them when we're back in context and there's a properly defined topic of conversation.

 

[oldwheels]

Are you a life model?

Swimmer

 

[Electric_Andy]

I'm extremely good with faces. A few times now I've seen people i went to school with, not seen them for 20+ years but i immediately recognised them. When I said hello, none of them could remember me until I told them my name, then they just said "Oh"

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I need new glasses, I thought this was going to be about Gillian McKeith.

 

[Nigeyy]

Me! me! me! I'm pretty sure I have prosopagnosia ( https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34709004 )*

Unless I see someone at least 3-4 times, I could talk with them one day and the next not recognize them at all. I obviously don't do it on purpose, I just seem to have a complete inability to recognize someone. Really interestingly, I do have an uncanny knack of seeing just a random couple of seconds of a film I saw ten years ago and remembering what it was. I just don't know how that works. My wife, on the other hand, is the complete reverse (maybe that's why we are married). She has come to know my problem, and has become well versed in injecting people's names in front of me.

To add further misery, I have a big problem over here in that I'm more easily recognizable or easy to remember as I have an unusual first name and an English accent. It appears I am very easily remembered as "the English guy with the funny name". While I can't say I'm gregarious, I will gladly have a chat with anyone, which can be a problem as I then can't recognize them literally a couple of hours later. I might be around town and someone (who I will obviously not recognize!) will call out "Hi, how are you doing?". I then must go through a charade of pretending I know them and sometimes have to hold my own in conversations. Afterwards my wife and kids will laugh at me as they know fully well I have no idea of who the person is, how I met them, what I chatted with them about, etc. I can't tell you how often this has happened -and the problem is that I can't bring myself to say "Sorry, who are you again?" (or words to that effect) for fear of sounding like I'm the kind of person who just can't be bothered to remember that person, which I think could sound very disrespectful. So of course I opt for the strategy of just going along....

*I recall there was an online test, which I failed miserably in the link

 

[ColinJ]

@Nigeyy - 'Like' as in 'interesting', NOT 'good'!

Aaargh - I am worse than I thought... I have been watching 'Marcella' on Netflix. There is a shortish bearded man getting up to something dodgy. There is also a second shortish bearded man, with a foreign lodger who is getting up to something dodgy. I didn't realise that it was the SAME shortish bearded man until the dodgy foreigner mentioned it!

 

[Nigeyy]

Been there, done that....

Aaargh - I am worse than I thought... I have been watching 'Marcella' on Netflix. There is a shortish bearded man getting up to something dodgy. There is also a second shortish bearded man, with a foreign lodger who is getting up to something dodgy. I didn't realise that it was the SAME shortish bearded man until the dodgy foreigner mentioned it!

 

[ColinJ]

I am just about to start watching the final series of 'Homeland'. Even I can't mistake Saul (dark-haired, bearded man) for Carrie (blonde, wild-eyed woman). At least ... I really hope not!

 

[classic33]

Names and faces, putting the two together if not seen for a while, hopeless. They say something, mention a place for example, I'll have a good idea who I'm talking to. I'll have matched either the name or face to the voice, seldom both.

Apparently I've not changed one bit in the last 40 years?

 

[oldwheels]

Somehow I think of a tale told to me by an exciseman I worked with. A local GP in Banffshire was called to see some high and mighty duchess or some such who had piles and was being a bit coy about turning over to get the offending bit checked. " Ach turn ower quine, faces an erses are aw the same tae me".

 

[glasgowcyclist]

There's a woman i see in the gym quite often. I'm almost 99 percent sure she's the one i had my first ever kiss with,on Christmas Eve 1976. I might ask her,but she might think 'who's the creepy fecking weirdo',if i mention it?! Maybe it's best to just keep it to the occasional hello.

Try the old ploy of "Excuse me but my friend says he had his first ever kiss with you... " etc and see how she answers.

 

[Threevok]

I have an excellent memory for faces

Which is handy, as there's no shaving mirror in the bathroom