I also have trouble saying a few words. The ones that trip me up the most are
Conscience, and Conscious. I always have to stop and think before I say them, and even then usually spit and sputter them out!
I can’t wake up in the morning. I’ve had this problem since I was a child. Getting out of bed is the hardest thing I do each day. If I need to be somewhere early, it is like torture. I have to set my alarm an hour ahead of time so that I can hit snooze 5 times, and even then it’s hard to get up.
I also have a very hard time going to bed early. See a trend here? I am a night owl, and I can’t go to sleep unless I am good and ready, which is rarely before 1 or 2 am.
I have both these problems. Do you know there’s a name for the face thing? It’s called prosopagnosia (face blindness). Great site here. http://www.prosopagnosia.com I’ve probably posted about it before. Anyway, I was ecstatic to put a name to this cause of social awkwardness. People get amazingly offended that you don’t recognize them – it’s great to have an actual scientific name for what you have. Also, it’s related to the directional thing apparently – often people with prosopagnosia have trouble with directions. Have you asked around in your family? Usually someone else has it too. I made an announcement at a family reunion, describing my symptoms and asking if anyone else had it. One of my aunts was ecstatic to realize that her problem had a name. One of my brothers has it too.
Small talk. I suck at it. People at work will ask ‘how was your weekend?’ and I’ll say something like ‘fine thanks’ and stop there. Only afterwards do I remember what I’m supposed to say after ‘fine thanks’ is ‘how was yours?’ :smack: I can talk fine on a specific topic, but with random small talk no matter how hard I try conversation always stutters to a halt.
Drinking shots. I watch other people take a shot, just pouring it straight down their throat - can’t do it! I have to pour the shot into my mouth and then swallow, which usually means I end up gulping it awkwardly down (which sometimes leads to the awkward 'well, this tastes bad. Too late though - can’t really politely spit it out so gulp it down! :p)
Talking on the phone… well I’m not keen on it, but I can make calls without too much drama. I MUCH prefer email though. I do know where the phone problem started for me - working in a call centre. Did not want to answer the phone at home after answering it all day!
This is fascinating…because in addition to the directional thing, I also have an issue with recognizing people. In my case, it’s made worse by the fact that I work in an operating room, and half the time all I see of people is their eyes and forehead. Oh sure, we have nametags, but they’re covered up by the surgical gown!
To make it worse, part of my job is documenting the names of all the people in the room. It can be really embarassing to have to ask the tech or surgeon for what I know is the 10th time what their name is. If I’m lucky, there is a circulating tech, too, and I can ask them the names on the sly, so at least I don’t have to announce it to the room.
I can’t taste any difference between different varieties of table wine.
As far as I’m concerned, table wine comes in two types: red and white.
I cannot tell or taste the difference between a Shiraz or a Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvignon, and I sure as hell cannot taste any of the “subtle hints of berries/liquorice/coffee/chocolate/something else that isn’t grape” that Wine Connoisseurs comment upon at length in the tasting notes. It all tastes the same to me. I can taste the difference between red wine and white wine, but that’s as far as it goes.
Holy shit, I think that might be it! Of course, I might just be falling prey to internet self diagnosis here, but for years I’ve thought my “can’t remember people” thing went further than most people’s troubles in the area. But that stone analogy is perfect: three or four stones, and I was okay, but more than that and I felt the same panic I feel when there’s a group of people that I know I know, but I don’t know who anyone is.
For example, do you think most people would be able to recognize a Doper they’ve (in the past year) sat next to and chatted with twice for dinner in a group, been to their house thrice, been on IM with about once a week for three months and then went to pick up on the train? Yeah, I couldn’t for the life of me have recognized Blue_Kangaroo walking down the sidewalk. And not 'cause I don’t adore her - I do! And not 'cause we don’t have a connection - we do! But just because faces and the names that go with them don’t stick in my head. I was so relieved when she smiled and said hi and held her arms out for a hug, 'cause I would have let her walk right by me.
I know for a fact that I’ve hurt people I really care about by “ignoring them,” when in fact I just didn’t know or wasn’t sure who they were. 
I hate doing that, but nothing seems to help - I’ve tried the nmemonics and memory tricks and even taking pictures of everyone and making flash cards. Doesn’t help.
ETA: I wonder how much of my anxiety disorder is actually due to the stress of this, in fact. I think a whole lot of it.
I do the exact same thing!
Swimming. It seems to be a skill that eludes me.
Luckily I hate being in water anyway, so it’s no great loss.
Another problems-with-phones guy here. The phone will ring. My Caller ID tells me who’s calling. I sit here and listen to the person leaving a message. Then I’ll agonize over the task of calling them back. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or never.
And here’s a weird one: I hate saying my own full name. For some reason no matter how much I try it doesn’t come out right, and people think it’s something else.
And cooking: I’m incapable of cooking an entire meal, and have everything get done at roughly the same time. And when cooking something with multiple ingredients, like stew, I never remember which ingredients take longer to cook. So some ingredients turn out overcooked, and others are still raw.
I also cannot motivate myself to do housework on a regular basis. I’ll wait till things get really bad, then try to do it all at once.
I’m terrible with faces and names, too. One thing I loved about one of my jobs was that everyone had to wear a name badge.
It takes me a long time to get to the point where I can consistently remember someone’s name when I see them. If I see someone infrequently, like only once a year at a family reunion, I might never remember their name. I’m anxious about socializing, and this really doesn’t help.
I can’t usually follow black and white movies, because I need things like hair color as a cue to who’s who. Especially since men in those movies so often dress alike, they all look the same to me.
I’m terrible at those, too. And I spent a lot of time in high school playing them. Proof that practice doesn’t always make perfect…
Same here. You know how guys stereotypically don’t notice dirt around the house until it’s really bad? I’m like that, too. We’ve solved that problem by having someone come in every two weeks. At least that way things can only get so bad.
Adding and subtracting in my head. For that matter, any mental math.
I got straight As in math in high school, I got an A- in college Statistics (though I had to work HARD), but ask me 400 - 324 and two out of three times I will answer incorrectly. I don’t know why this is so hard for me… the numbers all seem to take on the same characteristics in my head. Like an 8 and a 2 appear to have the same value because of where they’re located on a number line (two spaces from either end.) I don’t know. I suck at math.
I’m oblivious to subtle clues. If you want me to do something, or ask me something, you have to be frank about it. Body language, facial expressions, etc, I can’t pick up on.
Looking people in the eyes. I find eyeballs to be utterly disgusting, and looking into one makes my skin want to crawl off my bones and hide in a dark corner somewhere.
Talking in general. Between my southern accent, my stutter, and the disconnect between my brain and my mouth*, it makes it difficult for people to understand me.
Following simple directions when it comes to cooking. If I memorize a recipe, I can make it without a problem. If I try to follow a recipe out of a book or on a tv show, I’ll mess up. Last time I did this I tried to make a cherry cobbler. What I ended up with was pink cherry flavored bread, with a gooey center, and burnt crust.
*I can be talking, and my mind will just blank on what word I need. I realize that it happens to other people on occasion, but for me it is a regular thing. I’m often times left describing it in simple terms. If you watch Simpsons, you can see Homer do this in the episode where he’s trying to lose weight via subliminal messages on tape, near the end when he wants a spoon.
Well, I have a somewhat slight form of MD, so I can’t run, and stairs are very hard for me, so there are a lot of mundane physical tasks that I can’t do. It’s annoying because I don’t LOOK “handicapped.”
For some reason, I’m fashion-blind. That is, if my wife asks me if two pieces of clothing go together, or if two colors complement each other, I’m paralyzed with fear. She knows now, and doesn’t ask much, but I just can’t tell that stuff. When I was a kid, I desperately wanted (and eventually got) a hideous outfit I saw at some store - reddish-pink jeans and a bright blue-and-red flannel-type shirt. I must have looked a right twat, but I loved the colors. My eyes hurt just with the memory…
Joe
Job interviews cause me severe anxiety. They seriously turn me into a nervous wreck, more than anything else I can think of. I hate being put on the spot and feel like they’re nitpicking and judging everything I say and do (which probably isn’t true but I can’t help it). No amount of preparation seems to help. Needless to say, job searches are a nightmare for me.
Adding this because I’m experiencing it at work right now…
Ear buds. They hurt my ears, and I can’t go for more than a few minutes without them falling out. How the heck does anyone wear them? Uncomfortable as all get-out.
Nametags are such a great invention. Labcoats embroidered with your name in the pocket, in clear, dark blue, this big letters.
I can tell you that the guy in the corner booth looks familiar because he was three spots ahead of us in the movies three months ago, when we went to Iron Man. On the other hand, of our dozen team members who stay in Bilbao, I can remember the names of five - and three of those five have the same megacommon name.
I don’t like the phone, or Team Speak while in WoW. Not because of themselves, but I seem to have a lot more problems understanding people over them than I do in person. Some people seem to think that talking to their left elbow with their microphone tucked behind their right ear and the local talk show on at full blare is fine: sorry, I. Can’t. Hear. You! Yes I do “know English” (better’n’you), yes I “entiendo español” (been speaking it for almost 40 years), but I can’t hear you!
It’s weird because I can see words in my head–words appear to me like in the movies when they zoom in on a typewriter or computer typing. I was a whizz at spelling when I was younger–ok, I won the third grade spelling bee.( No nationals or anything, so I probably wasn’t all that good, but anway, I digress), but to line up a column of numbers so that I can subtract them–I literally get lost in the curves of the 8 or the 6 etc. I don’t see numbers on a number line–that was hard as hell for me in grammar school (although the negative numbers being on the left of the line stuck with me); I just can’t keep the place position of the number AND the value of the number AND its sum or product or whatever in my head at the same time. You would think that since letters have as many random curves as numerals do, that the skill would translate. It does not.
I also suffer badly from name/face stuff. Layer in user names and I’m lost. I have to mumble to myself, “WhyNot is ____. WhyNot’s name is ____” at random intervals in order to keep it in my head. That’s why I chose a user name that had my own name in it–I wouldn’t remember my own.
I thought the dryer ate socks at random–no shame about it. Just hungry dryers. I am always buying new socks (about once a month). I have given up trying to track them.
ETA: ear buds hurt like hell! I bought the ones with the “training wheels” and even those hurt a bit. Gah.
I can never line my car up properly to get in a drive-through car wash. I’m so embarrassed when the car wash guy has to reach in my window and turn my steering wheel for me.
I usually avoid that kind of car wash.
I have a “one-name-per-face” rule. I’m at the Ren faire a lot and getting everyone’s character/real names straight is ridiculous, even if you don’t already have recognition problems. I don’t care WHAT name you give me, but know going in that once I get it, that’ll be the only name I know you by.
Which is how I embarrassed myself at a local coffee shop on one of the rare occasions I did make a name-face connection: he walked in with co-workers from his real-life job and I said, “Hey! Lord Strange! How ya doing?”