I have moderate prosopagnosia- or face blindness. It means that the part of my brain that in most people is specifically dedicated to recognizing and categorizing faces doesn't really do it's job well.
Instead it's off checking out the snack machine, hanging around the water cooler making bad jokes, going out for inconvenient smoke breaks.

I've developed ways to get around it most of the time. However, one of the ways I've had to deal with it is to come right out and make fun of myself before either I or "whoever this person is that I probably know from a specific other context" get too deep in the assumption that I know them and can continue the conversation pretending that.

I often need specific context to recognize someone- if I only know someone from my psych class, I won't recognize them in a coffee shop. If I know someone from work, I won't recognize them in a grocery store. My best friend drove to the center of town a while ago and she got out of her car and started walking toward me. I have difficulty recognizing cars sometimes [completely different issue] and she was wearing a coat I don't often see her in. I didn't know it was her until she was almost right up to me.

Because my personal neurology is considered to be... eh, slightly different, I guess?... I don't even recognize my own face really.

I logically know it is my face, but i don't experience the kind of recognition that I understand most people have of their own face. I know it is mine because I know I am standing in front of the mirror. I understand that is my face in the image because I just took that picture.

But on a very basic level I have very little attachment to and ownership of that visage. Sometimes I wonder to what degree this may have had an effect on my development in terms of personality and concept of self.

Does anyone else experience prosopagnosia [face blindness] to the point of not recognizing yourself? Do you think this may have had some kind of effect [not necessarily positive or negative] on your self-concept, your personality, or how you regard or treat others or the world around you?

I take a huge number of selfies, but I don't consider myself particularly vain. I think it's because every photo of my face isn't the same old thing for me. I'm STILL trying to get to know it and it is new and different every time. I've figured out relatively recently that not everyone has the same fascination with their own face. I've known for a while about the face-blindness but it took me a long time to catch on that other people actually have more recognition and attachment to their own face than I have to mine.

You would think this obvious, but no. Haha.

I feel like maybe it has affected me to some extent. Not really negatively though.

Thoughts?