Face blindness

[loccast]

Head a grade 1 tumor removed four weeks ago. I now have prosopagnosia (face blindness). I cannot recognize faces, not even my own. Neurologist and Neuro Opthamologist have said to give it time. It could take months for brain swelling to decrease and brain circuits to reconnect. Waiting is frustrating. Anyone out there with a similar experience?


This discussion is related to recovery after craniotomy.

[ggreg]

Hi Prospero.  Yes, as I posted here a few years ago, this forum has entertained many discussions about face blindness, and could be if you will do a search of this forum you may get some references.  The search rectangle is towards the top of these four posts, on the right, on this very page, just under the first ad over there, and it says, "Search This Community" with a big "GO" button on the end.  Just type in "Face Blindness," and you'll get a bunch of links to discussions on this subject.  And likely a general search from your home page using those words will take you to hopefully various websites that talk about this, maybe even offer treatment to deal with it, and you never know, could be since brain swelling can be a cause of this, somebody could tell you anti-inflammatories might help, but I'm REALLY just guessing on that one.  

Yes, that Oliver Sacks, he does all the unique and baffling medical cases.  I know this is off-topic, but there was a fellow he wrote about in one of his books, he could not see any color at all.  What happened is, things like a red apple would appear as a dark blackish object, didn't do much to stimulate the appetite.  So, what he did was, he rid his house of all color, it's all black and white, and this is comforting to him.  He also has a black and white dog.  I am sorry, Prospero, a lifetime of coping with an actual disability like yours, and a pretty radical one at that!  I feel sure there MUST be a website someone has created for this, how comforting it would be for you to talk to others who deal with this.  I hope you can use this website's search system, your own regular search system, to find more, I can only steer you as I know so little about it, just that I found it interesting and so read a little one time.  GG

[Prospero73]

This is quite an old post, and I wonder where to find more discussion of this issue.  My prosopagnosia, or face blindness, is a mild case, but I've had it all my life (75 and counting).  I didn't even know it was a recognized condition until I read about it in an article by Oliver Sacks in the New Yorker a few months ago.  I moved around a lot as a child, and every time I changed schools it was an ordeal learning how to identify people.  I generally came down to two or three people who resembled each other somewhat, but whom I could never confidently tell apart.  I learned very early not to call people by name, after the embarrassment of  getting them wrong.

[ggreg]

That face blindness thing has been discussed in the past on this forum, but I believe the one I recall was a permanent thing.  Still, you could do a search of this forum, perhaps in the archives, too, and find a couple threads on the issue.  Seems like there's some websites, too, out there online devoted to face blindness, how to cope, that sort of thing, and they may have been referenced in those posts.  I recall that noticing hairstyles and voices helps the situation, plus I think I suggested when amongst friends and relatives, ask them to announce themselves, until you finally get back your senses when the swelling in your brain goes down.  Brain surgery always causes some temporary deficits, so hang in.