Metal Anarchy

Mercyful Fate bassist Becky Baldwin has taken to social media to open up about her battle with prosopagnosia. The condition, which is also referred to as face blindness, makes it hard for the brain to recognize faces.

Baldwin said the following:

“Face blindness affects about 1 in 50 people. At first I noticed that I struggled understanding films when two actors had similar hair colours, because I assumed I was seeing the same person every time. I thought I was just disinterested in Hollywood celebrities and that’s why I could rarely recognise anyone famous. But I guess over time, with the nature of my work meeting a lot of people, with sometimes years between seeing them… I started to realise this was a problem that I have that is much worse than other people around me.

It is probably weird meeting me in person, you don’t know what you’re going to get. You might get a lot of vague questions where I’m desperately trying to place you. You might get a look of bewilderment, which I swear isn’t a reflection on you, it’s just me trying to process a situation that I’m terrible at. You might also get an over-the-top friendly and familiar attitude, because I’m wondering if we’ve met a dozen times and I just can’t get my brain to recognise you, and I don’t like to come off as cold and disinterested (which is a criticism I get a lot). Or maybe, I’ll remember you and it’s totally fine!

It doesn’t mean I can’t recognise anybody, it’s just faces 🤣 so I might meet someone only once but remember the bass they played, so if I see them with that bass again I know them. Sometimes I remember a unique make up or hair style, or clothing. Of course I can remember people I see regularly, or celebrities or people I follow online if their faces come up a lot on my social media. However, if someone makes a big change in their appearance, it’s really hard for me to adjust. Many times in my life when people close to me have changed their style, my subconscious can’t make sense of it. I feel myself missing someone who is still there, and it takes a while to settle into the fact that this isn’t a completely new person I’m now hanging out with.

So, 1 in 50 people, that’s thousands of you guys following this page, but I’ve so rarely heard people talk about it. So I thought I’d share my experience, maybe some of you can relate, and others can understand the real experience. Thanks for reading!”