i have some questions and i hope you don't take offense, i'm just genuinely curious. is it scary having prosopagnosia, like not being able to recognize your family? do you just see their faces as complete strangers? also are you able to recognize celebrities for who they are or do you rely on something (like tags on tumblr or their voices in shows, etc) to be able to put names to faces? i remember with color rush, the kid could only remember his best friend by his hairstyle and then when his friend got a haircut, he wasn't able to recognize him. is that something you experience, too?

Hi, anon, I don't mind at all! Thank you for your questions. 💜 I'll try and answer them all but my experience with prosopagnosia might not be universal. It's more of a spectrum with some people simply having trouble remembering faces to cases even more severe than what I'm experiencing. If you're curious, the late (and absolutely wonderful) Oliver Sacks talks about it in this short video. He was a neurologist and psychiatrist and also had prosopagnosia.

That being said, I don't think prosopagnosia is scary at all. I've always had it (though there is a version of it that is acquired later in life through trauma and brain damage - that must be incredibly scary) and it's a part of me. Tbh I just always assumed everyone was like me and I was just especially bad at socialising - like there was some secret people refused to share with me. Much later I was in therapy for something unrelated and it came up. Luckily my therapist was a neurologist so she diagnosed me.

It's more... isolating and a bit embarassing. It wasn't so bad when I was younger because you pretty much stick with the same crowd in and outside of school anyway, so you learn how to tell them apart by their clothes and voices and where they sit, what number their sports jersey is etc. It's only ever really bad when unexpected things happen - like someone changing their hair or completely changing the way they look. Or when I meet people where I don't expect them to. I then no longer recognise them and that can lead to some awkwardness (like in the scene you described from Color Rush).

I remember that I once talked to a person who I thought was my dad for a whole few minutes until my actual dad showed up. I about died when I realised (so did the other person lmao).

It only ever became isolating when I went to uni and met lots of new people. I mostly met everyone once, got along just fine and then the next week (or out and about on campus) I no longer recognised them. I didn't make a lot of friends at uni. 🤣

But no, I don't think of family and friends as strangers just because I don't see their faces. Faces aren't really a part of my thought process. You'd probably have trouble telling apart your loved ones by their ankles or wrists but you wouldn't consider them a stranger because of it. Does that make sense?

As for favourite celebrities, it's a mix of voices and features that stand out. Pictures are really bad because then they're not moving and talking and that's such a huge part of what makes someone uniquely beautiful. I often have to ask @cytharat to help me out (and she's wonderfully patient and understanding). Maybe that's why I like making gifs so much?

Also, I like interesting faces and facial features that stand out: noses, moles, scars, asymmetry - things that aren't considered classically beautiful are incredibly beautiful to me because I can actually "see" them.

If all else fails I just compare ears because ears are actually a lot like like fingerprints. 🤣