Have we met?

Post date: 2022-05-19 00:05:11

I (woman in mid-thirties) have a really, really hard time with all three components of remembering people I meet - I have a significant amount of face blindness (I will literally see and forget a face in minutes), I will either forget to get the name/forget it after some time, and sometimes, the faces and names are islands with no bridge connecting the same. This is especially bad when it comes to introductions at work. This, when I work in an industry where this is practically an essential skill. Why is this and how do I fix this?

I am friendly when I meet new people, will listen with attention and patience during conversations, and I have been told several times that people tend to come to me for help because I am reliable. I meet, I help/submit inputs/create whatever doohickey they want...I move on and their details fly straight out of my head.It is very embarrassing to meet the same people later and realize that they all remember me (I have a very unusual first name and it's a male dominated industry so I already stick out a bit as a woman) while I've forgotten every single identifying detail. My colleagues seem to have no trouble with this and have been really rather nice about helping me cover up some especially weird gaps, when they happen. I am good with remembering phone voices (and can remember additional details for these when required). I have a tremendously good memory for my actual work/case histories/numbers. Why is visual memory such a problem? How do I figure out a workaround? This is brought to you by the seventh instance of running into someone at work, who immediately called me by name and who I had a convivial chat with, all the while internally panicking about who on earth they are. And it's only Wednesday yet :(
Thanks in advance.

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