Shenaz Treasury, who made her Bollywood debut with Ishq Vishk in 2003, recently took to social media to reveal that she has been diagnosed with prosopagnosia. The actress turned blogger spoke about the issue, its repercussions and how it has affected her in detail by sharing a series of text photos as her Instagram story.
The first story that revealed the diagnosis said, “I have been diagnosed with prosopagnosia. Now, I understand why I’ve never been able to put faces together. It’s a cognitive disorder. I always felt ashamed that I can’t recognise faces. I recognise voices.” She added in her next story, “Signs and symptoms of face blindness/prosopagnosia. 1. You have failed to recognise a close friend or family member, especially when you weren’t expecting to see them. Yes, that is me. Takes me a minute to register who the person is. Sometimes even a close friend I haven’t seen in a while.”
She went on to elaborate on her condition adding, “You have difficulty recognising neighbours, friends, coworkers, clients, schoolmates. People you know expect you to recognise them. Failing to recognise someone might make you seem aloof. Many sufferers report losing friends and offending coworkers because they have failed to recognise them. This is me.”
She explained further by requesting everyone around her to understand saying, “”I’ve always felt so ashamed that I mix up people and can’t recognise faces of people — even close friends after a few years – I can’t recognize them. This is a real brain issue. Please be kind and understand,”
She also mentioned that she often used hair as a way of recognizing but would face an issue as someone had a haircut. “So you confuse characters in movies or on television more so than other people? Yes, I do. I can’t tell the difference if two characters have the same height and build and hairstyle. When someone gets a haircut, you may not recognize them when you see them again. Many people with face blindness use hair as a way to remember people. When a person’s hair changes, that memory cue is lost. So now please understand that this is a real disorder and not me being aloof or snobbish,” she concluded.
