Hi, friends!
Do you feel like an observant person?
I feel like I’m great at noticing plants and animals, but I’m not good with people. Ask me to describe the person I talked to at the post office the other day and I’m gonna be like uhhh she was a nice lady. Basically, any crime hinging on me identifying or describing a suspect does not stand a chance of being solved.
I had a treatment at the medspa Tuesday night that had me looking like a tomato-red sunburn yesterday and a still bad (but not quite as red) sunburn today. Didn’t see anyone staring when I ran errands either day. And like wow I looked a hot mess with a clear line down the edge of my jaw for *normal skin* to *RED RED RED*.
I’m good at recognizing people I’ve met, but bad at specific features.
I can easily tell when someone has had a haircut, but I’m terrible at remembering what their hair used to be like.
However, I’m good at remembering things along the way to somewhere, but bad at combining them in an overall sense of direction.
I’m very good at remembering peoples faces, names, and things they said to me. And it’s sort of gotten me into awkward situations. Because the person may assume they have some special connection to me or that I’m overly interested in them. But it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just the way my brain works. I’ve learned to play it down a bit so it’s not weird.
I’m good at faces but terrible at names. I will also remember your dog before I remember you.
Well duh. Always important to remember the doggos first!
I spot a lot of deer that other people don’t seem to notice.
My daughter is like that, has been since she was a child. It’s served her well professionally.
I notice a lot of things… Not many of them important apparently.
Of greater importance, anything fun at the med spa? (I have many friends who frequent such establishments to roll back the years.)
A round of microneedling. I did 3 rounds last year and it really helped a lot, and I wanted to try another series this year to see if my skin could improve more. The treatment basically blasts through hyperpigmentation so it helps with reducing where I got sun damage getting more apparent. Also blasts through milia so helps with those. And the needling helps with collagen formation so it’s made a noticeable improvement on my acne scars from ye olde cystic acne days of my teens and twenties.
I’ve always been accused of being unobservant. However I’ve learned that it’s actually hyper awareness of threats. So if my brain doesn’t perceive the thing in front of me as a threat then it is cast aside as irrelevant and moves on to the next thing. This means I never remember names, rarely remember faces, and tend to never notice changes in appearance—a problem that got me in trouble with more than one girlfriend over the years.
That sounds like a childhood trauma response, my friend.
I get hyperaware of the unstable adult(s) in the room thanks to dealing with an alcoholic father with lots of moods that would flip out for often no reason.
Jeez, Brighter, ya don’t need to call us all out like that… sheesh!!!
😉😆😂🤣
I know you were replying to Butcher, but DANG that “sounds like a trauma response” part is SPOT ON!🙃🥴💖
I’m a lot like Butcher is. Straight-up Face Blindness, here, in addition to forgetting names at first, *and* that “reading the threats” thing…
I can–and HAVE–manage(d) to completely mix up coworkers I’ve worked with for 4+ years now, if I see them “out of place”😖😱–i.e. at training days, when I don’t have “their school” to help me determine “which lady shaped like this outline**” the one in front of me right then *is*🥴🥴🥴
It’s something I’ve had ALL my life–for *some* reason my visual-memory ends up faulty, and it ends up being my AUDIO memory that I’ve realized I “learn people by.”
As soon as I *hear* that person speak? I KNOW immediately who they are… but if there is ANYONE who has a similar body shape/silhouette who works at ALL near us? I WILL confuse the two of them, regularly, and sometimes, for YEARS, until I know *both* of them reasonably well, and can spot their differences readily!😉😂🤣
**that silhouette/ “outline” /”shape” can be different in height by 6+ inches, and the people can be as easily identifiable to others, as “a blonde” and “a brunette” with different hair *types,* and my brain will still manage to categorize those two as “These are the same type! Therefore they are the SAME!”
And it’s literally the sound, cadence, & musicality of their individual voices that allows me to tell them apart!😖😱🤣
Of COURSE I apologize when I mix them up! But I wishsometimes, that I COULD recognize people *out* of the (NARROW!) context my brain encodes them in!
BOO!!!
(Somehow I doubt you found that threatening)
movement….. im that annoying person that will suddenly be looking your way if you so much as twitch
its part paranoia and part growing up with a damaged army marksman
shape,shine,shadow,sillhouette,movement
I’m GOOD at noticing “antecedents”–both positive *and* negative ones.
It’s what makes me good at my job–i *notice* the things that trigger behaviors in my kiddos.
And because I notice them?
I can mitigate the stressful ones, and get that behavior changed reasonably quickly😉💖💝
If you want me to notice specific people, though?
I’m face-blind as HELL, and I’ll still be capable of confusing “you and ____(coworker), for literally *YEARS* at a time!🙃
I’ll remember what letter their name *starts* with, how large/small their family is, that story they told about what their Uncle’s cousin’s neighbor’s dog did while chasing the squirrel, back in 1983….
But I won’t remember their name, or face!😖😱🥴