I image a movie scene: There is a man sitting at a table in a cantina. He has dark hair, slightly rugged clothes. Standing next to his table is a little green alien that targets a blaster at him. The person is sitting low, at an angle that prevents the alien from seeing that he has drawn his own blaster below the table. I know all of this, but I have no visual image of it. If I had to draw what I see in my head it would be a blank piece of paper with arrows pointing at certain points, labeled with "Han", "Table" and "Greebo".

If someone talks to you and you're not sure who they are, tell them you're faceblind and ask. It takes some getting used to, but it's worth it.

In my previous company we gave a short introduction when joining, and I included faceblindness. "If I meet you randomly on the street and don't say hello, that's not with malicious intent."

Most people are understanding, though a few are not, but really then it's their problem.

I recently heard the best way to explain faceblindness: Apples.

Can you tell apples apart? Yes, sure, if you put two apples next to each other, they look similar, but there are differences.

But could you recognize that specific apple among 50 similar ones?

If an apple addressed you on the street, could you remember where you've seen it before?

That is how it feels to be faceblind.

There are workarounds, but they are context-dependent and error-prone.

That apple with red hair and a beard? Sure, that's the colleague from the office next door. But was that the same apple that waved to you in the city yesterday?

The only green apple among red ones? Easy to recognize. But only after some awkward misunderstandings you realize that there are two of them.

And changes of hairstyle are a real problem. I once wondered who that new colleague was during lunchbreak. I was about to ask her, when she said something (unrelated) and I recognized her voice. I had worked with her for 10 years, she had colored her hair.

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For me, it took years to identify two triggers: Relieve from stress, and overly exhausting sports or sauna. I used to have a stressful job, and regular intensive training on sunday mornings, and would very often get migraine at exactly 4pm. Since changing the job and doing moderate sports, it became much more infrequent.

Also, I have never had an optical aura. But I have observed yawning, and an increased sensitivity in my nasal passages (basically I feel every breath much more detailed, but not painful) as forewarnings.

The image I see in my mind is basically an empty paper, with an arrow pointing to the left labeled "mountain", an arrow to the right labeled "wood", and an arrow to the middle labeled "path". Maybe, maybe the mountain is represented with two lines /\ and the path is a winding line ~~~ but that is already pushing it.

These kind of "mind-travels" are sometimes done at end of yoga classes. For me, they are complete pointless, and I usually fall asleep.

I have also great problems identifying faces, don't know if there is a connection.

On the other hand, I can vividly imagine sounds, including voices and music.

Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, found on zenpencils.com

A second one from the webcomic "Order of the Stick":

"You're not a type! You're a person, a person who does stuff! If you want to be different, do different stuff! Look at me. I used to be a town guard, and then I decided I wanted to be a cleric. Did everyone I know tell me, "Oh, I don't really think you're the type to be a cleric"? Yes! Did I listen to them? No! If anyone tells you that you can't be better if you want to be, you punch them in their stupid judgy face! And you know what the best part is? When you make a change, everyone who meets you from that point on? Only knows the new version of you. And that's nice."

And a last one:

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Benjamin Franklin, found in Civilization IV