Page 26 - Changes and Challenges

Dementia
Changes and Challenges
In everyday life this prosopagnosia poses many social challenges. I identify
most people by all the features unique to them, not their faces. I suspect most
people are using similar techniques for identification but are unaware of it.
Most of my friends are aware of my condition and often offer additional
identifies voluntarily. For example, I have one friend (who I usually easily
identify) who tells me she always wears the same perfume when she knows
she will be seeing me.

One interesting consequence of this condition is how store “greeting staff”
appear to me. Their smiles – generally ear to ear, appear totally false to me. I
see a person who is out to deceive me, as such I will ignore them. To me this is
no were as rude as the outright lie they are acting out. In one case when they
were particularly persistent and annoying, I reported them to their
management as they appeared to be acting as stalkers rather than employees.

Another consequence of this is that I will occasional identify a person from a
distance based on their walk, style of clothing etc. Sometimes this will divert
my attention while I try and gather more information to make a positive
identification. This is often the case for people I have not seen for some time.

It also manifests itself sometimes as a ‘super-power’. I have identified people
in crowded environments purely from the style of their hair when viewed
from behind. I have done this on several occasions, while ‘normal’ people are
still trying to see the faces in the crowd.
Smell and Taste
Changes in my sense of smell were the first challenges I noticed after my
diagnosis. I became acutely aware of this when we were out browsing some
boutique shops. In a row of about 1 dozen shops we were making our way
through each shop sequentially, some we merely looked through the window
and dismissed them of no interest, others we would enter and explore. I
began to notice an odour that became more intense as we progressed though
some of the shops. About three shops further on we encountered a craft soap
shop. The odour was so intense that I couldn’t enter, indeed I had to walk
away to find fresh air. No one else noticed it, indeed they were unconcerned.

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