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Recognising People

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alwaysrunning
Have you ever not known who someone is even though you have spent time chatting with them/ spent time in their company before?
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Folded Edge
Do you mean not remembering their face or physical appearance? That's certainly a recognised thing, Face Blindness or Prosopagnosia.

I don't experience that, but I do have a problem remembering people's names. It has caused me problems in the past. Understandably, people have been offended and/or upset, and it has led to arguments.

I don't ignore people's names or consider myself rude. I think some of the time it's down to the old SA, when I was trying to socialise, I'd be nervous and apprehensive, that coupled with me being intoxicated (also to help with the nerves) which I'm sure didn't help, but it happened quite a lot even when I was completely sober.

Aside from the other person being upset, I've also found it really embarrassing, which is just another thing to go over in your head after the fact, along with everything else I may have said or done on a night out.
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Memories of Silence
Sometimes I don’t recognise people if they’re not where I usually see them. I might think they look familiar but mistake them for someone else.
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coeur_brise
I recognize too many people who don't know me personally. It's very strange, I think.
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Blue Dino
For the most part, I don't. It is usually a combination of most people I meet choosing to not open up to me like they do with others. As a result, I became conditioned to not open up to others as well thinking this is normal, until I realize how others are more opened to each other unlike they do with me. I never knew why to this day.

In terms of recognizing people physically and remember details about them, I have always been pretty good at that growing up. Despite most are the opposite with me. Although as I got older, I became worse at recognizing people, especially if it's been a long time and I haven't really interact with the person much. Although I think this is normal, because the more people you meet, the less you will remember later on. As each new person you meet makes up a smaller part of your memory. I figure the more people a person meet and interact with, the less they will remember each individual. Unless that individual specifically are more memorable and stood out from the rest.

coeur_brise said:
I recognize too many people who don't know me personally. It's very strange, I think.
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Yup😅, been called out for this a few times when I was younger. So I resorted to faking not remembering others to avoid weirding people out. Although often times, I ended up offending some people when they thought I really don't remember them.
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SparklingWater
I 've definitely experienced not recognizing people in a different context, particularly from times when my anxiety was especially bad. Think the anxiety really affects encoding in my short-term memory.
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alwaysrunning
Folded Edge said:
Do you mean not remembering their face or physical appearance? That's certainly a recognised thing, Face Blindness or Prosopagnosia.

I don't experience that, but I do have a problem remembering people's names. It has caused me problems in the past. Understandably, people have been offended and/or upset, and it has led to arguments.

I don't ignore people's names or consider myself rude. I think some of the time it's down to the old SA, when I was trying to socialise, I'd be nervous and apprehensive, that coupled with me being intoxicated (also to help with the nerves) which I'm sure didn't help, but it happened quite a lot even when I was completely sober.

Aside from the other person being upset, I've also found it really embarrassing, which is just another thing to go over in your head after the fact, along with everything else I may have said or done on a night out.
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Seems to be if something changes. Few years ago I went to a group and the next day I was somewhere and this guy comes in and says "I know you don't I" to which my really confused response was "no, we've never met". Then I asked him if he could take his hat off, to which he did and then I recognised him. Something like this happened the day I wrote this post. The person had been wearing a hat and then appeared again and I said to a lady who is that? To which I'm sure she was shocked since I'd just spent a few hours in his company. Though he was further away when he reappeared without his hat haha.

It's like superman haha where he takes off his glasses and no one recognises him as Clarke Kent 🤣 I hope I never have to identify someone in a line up lol

Sorry to hear that being unable to remember someone's name has led to arguments :( Do you do name association? It's hard when there's a lot of people all at once though. When I met someone called Lloyd I said like the bank and he said "is that how you think of me" with a sad face. Oh dear, no, it's just the first thing that I thought of lol.
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alwaysrunning
Memories of Silence said:
Sometimes I don’t recognise people if they’re not where I usually see them. I might think they look familiar but mistake them for someone else.
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Yes. This did happen with a lady I met at a SA support group. I saw her at another place and then I got her mixed up with someone else I met from another place. I think it didn't make her feel too good as well :(

And another guy who I chatted to in one place. He said he never goes upstairs. He is upstairs one day and I did not recognise him at all.
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alwaysrunning
Blue Dino said:
Yup😅, been called out for this a few times when I was younger. So I resorted to faking not remembering others to avoid weirding people out. Although often times, I ended up offending some people when they thought I really don't remember them.
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It's like you can't win isn't it.
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alwaysrunning
Blue Dino said:
For the most part, I don't. It is usually a combination of most people I meet choosing to not open up to me like they do with others. As a result, I became conditioned to not open up to others as well thinking this is normal, until I realize how others are more opened to each other unlike they do with me. I never knew why to this day.
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🙁
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coeur_brise said:
I recognize too many people who don't know me personally. It's very strange, I think.
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SparklingWater said:
I 've definitely experienced not recognizing people in a different context, particularly from times when my anxiety was especially bad. Think the anxiety really affects encoding in my short-term memory.
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I’ve always had this problem but never felt any connection to anxiety. I don’t recognize celebrities at the airport or in restaurants. I don’t recognize many people in different context. Unfortunately it can come across as unfriendly. I try to just smile and wave regardless or I’ll say “what a pleasant surprise to see you here” and hope to get some clue about who they are in conversation. “How have you been?” always works too but a couple of times the other person is mistaken about who I am! That can be quite amusing because they try to get away as fast as possible! But who cares? I don’t know them anyway!
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Maximilien Robespierre
I sometimes don't recognize people if they have very non-distinctive faces. I generally never forget a face, but some rare people have faces so forgettable (to me) that I just cannot remember them for the life of me.
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Folded Edge
alwaysrunning said:
Seems to be if something changes. Few years ago I went to a group and the next day I was somewhere and this guy comes in and says "I know you don't I" to which my really confused response was "no, we've never met". Then I asked him if he could take his hat off, to which he did and then I recognised him. Something like this happened the day I wrote this post. The person had been wearing a hat and then appeared again and I said to a lady who is that? To which I'm sure she was shocked since I'd just spent a few hours in his company. Though he was further away when he reappeared without his hat haha.

It's like superman haha where he takes off his glasses and no one recognises him as Clarke Kent 🤣 I hope I never have to identify someone in a line up lol

Sorry to hear that being unable to remember someone's name has led to arguments :( Do you do name association? It's hard when there's a lot of people all at once though. When I met someone called Lloyd I said like the bank and he said "is that how you think of me" with a sad face. Oh dear, no, it's just the first thing that I thought of lol.
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That seems like an understandable and easy thing to happen, change the context and you could easily not recognise someone, that's happened top me on occasion. One example, I can think of, is meeting someone early in the morning on my way to college and this guy coming over and saying hello and my name, turned out he was a mate of a mate that I only ever saw at club nights, so it was like two different worlds colliding. but I had no clue who he was until he told me. 😳


That's a good idea with the name association, I wish I had thought of that back then, lol. I don't speak to people from the past, and it's been over a decade since I've hung out with anyone, so I don't think it's something I'll be able or need to implement in the future. 😬
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alwaysrunning
Folded Edge said:
That seems like an understandable and easy thing to happen, change the context and you could easily not recognise someone, that's happened top me on occasion. One example, I can think of, is meeting someone early in the morning on my way to college and this guy coming over and saying hello and my name, turned out he was a mate of a mate that I only ever saw at club nights, so it was like two different worlds colliding. but I had no clue who he was until he told me. 😳


That's a good idea with the name association, I wish I had thought of that back then, lol. I don't speak to people from the past, and it's been over a decade since I've hung out with anyone, so I don't think it's something I'll be able or need to implement in the future. 😬
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You can use drinking and the darkness of the club as a get out haha.

Whenever you meet anyone new give the name association a go 😆 I met someone new today at a volunteering thing and was going to say her name and then like and the famous person but decided that might be annoying but because I didn't say it I cannot remember 🙃
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either/or
I'm actually really good at recognizing faces, almost too good. But I'm not great at pairing the face with a name. There have been multiple incidents where I have recognized someone after only meeting them once very briefly several years prior. I've actually talked to people a couple of times to confirm this. They didn't remember me but they remembered the place or situation I described. This is the only time I can be social and initiate conversation with people lol when I recognize them and just have to talk to them to confirm we've met before.
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