Literally no sense of direction... at all

Forgot to say, I can actually read and operate maps at an average/acceptable level. But no map-type information ever makes it into my memory, and its very much a manual process of keeping my finger on the map and checking road names - not glancing at a map and then tossing it aside and just going.

I experience all journeys as if they were one of those medieval linear maps, where it's basically a series of pictures of the scenery in a long horizontal line on a scroll. I am able to memorise getting from point A to point B via a particular route after a few tries, because I just walk along the path. But what I am left with is a series of unconnected ways to get from one point to another point, none of which join up. So I may know how to get from Point A to Point B, and also separately from B to C, but the only way for me to get from A to C is to go via B - even if it's a big triangle and C is basically next door to A. Since I've realised how I experience it subjectively, I've been making more of an effort to note things that stand out to me personally and use them as placemarkers on routes. Or like examples upthread of getting lost on the way back from restaurant toilets, mentally giving myself verbal directions back on my way there.

DH sometimes amuses himself by asking me "Which direction is our house from here, then?" and getting me to point. My first instinct is always to just point back along the road we've been walking along, as that's the way I'd go to get there!

When I am given directions, I memorise the words like it's a list and follow them. Apparently some people visualise it in their head like it's a map. Go to the end of the road, go left, then go right at the tree, etc. No, it's a list of verbal instructions for me. If anything has changed like a road closure, it's an enormous effort to figure out a viable alternative - which I often get wrong! Thankfully I don't drive so this is all done at walking pace so I can either as much as I need to, or get my phone out!

I am also bad at recognising faces, but have an uncanny memory for clothes and accessories!

I’m also terrible with faces, interesting to see that others say the same. I have bad spatial awareness and am also terrible at any type of ball games. Not sure if that’s all linked in any way

Following as can 100% relate to this!!

I relied on the children to get us home if we deviated from one of my few 'known' routes. They, luckily, take after their father in that respect.

Dh tries to teach me to landmark but it just doesn't seem to translate into something I can apply elsewhere.

I cannot go out on my own, have not been out on my own for years.....I do have severe mental health issues and also Aspergers. We moved house two years ago.....I have no idea where I am half the time.

I’ve worried about this sort of situation. I’ve now got the what three words app on my phone, so if I ever do need to say where I am urgently, as long as I’ve got phone signal I will be able to do so.

I was lucky to escape a very bad accident a few years ago. Ahead of me was a 5 car pile up and I had to call the ambulance as was first uninjured on scene. So I was already panicked when I called and the operator asked me where I was. I was on a motorway, so said I'm on x road, so she asked which exit did a pass last. I didn't know. And then she asked me was I traveling east or west. I didn't know that either. By this time I was getting myself in quite a state as can see all the goings on but just couldn't tell her exactly where we were. There were no landmarks to say oh this is front of me. In the end I said I'm traveling from x place to y place and I've been driving for 20 mins so that's where I am. But it was really awful and if I could have just said what the previous off ramp was I'm sure they would have been able to dispatch help quicker. It still bothers me to this day.

I am and am getting worse, I don't think it helps that DH is very good at navigating so I just follow him, I can never find my way round places and have got lost at work on several occasions when starting a new job and it takes me ages to learn where everywhere is. I have a bright yellow car so I don't lose it, my last one was bright green, easy to spot from a distance.

Just to add to my earlier posts - I have no problem knowing left/right or with the points of the compass. I'm just disoriented in places where I can't get my bearings.

A random memory has just returned to me. I remember as a child on a seaside holiday knowing, without being told, that if I went down to the sea I'd not be able to find my parents among the massed deck chairs when I went back. So I would stand in front of them and look over their heads and align with a building on the prom. I have a photo of me on that beach together with my landmark in the distance - an amusement arcade with a huge neon clown face above it. I was 3 years old! Rationally, now, I'm sure my parents were keeping their eyes on me anyway but how odd that even at that age I was aware of this 'danger'.

Are any of you called Karen Powell?

I used to think it was only me that had all these difficulties and problems so it's nice to know that that it's not.
Trouble is, my own dh is brilliant at navigating and driving and rarely loses things and doesn't worry about driving anywhere new or whatever.
My own lack of all these skills has stopped me doing so much I think , it's the fear of it all going wrong.

Me too. Hopelessly directionally challenged - my husband is the polar opposite, can go somewhere once and remember and can take a random turn and know exactly where he is going to come out.

Me, if I can visualise the start of a journey, I can't see the middle.

I'm quite bad with faces too, it takes me a while before they click.

I really wish it was the other way and it came naturally. Life would be much easier.

I couldn't do anything with a compass or navigation by the sky or the stars! (Good job
The SAS turned me down eh ? )😀😅

Yes me. I tell my daughter I’ve got Waze on to check for traffic jams ahead, but it’s really because otherwise I’d get lost driving her couple of miles down the road. (On the journey we do weekly)

Also crap with faces. It’s amazing I ever manage to get anything done!

My people! I think I’m dyscalculic as it’s not just directions with me; it’s numbers and some other sequential information. I remember landmarks....in the wrong order and, hey, sometimes I’ll decide a landmark from place A is actually in place B. I can be reduced to a sweaty mess trying to get anywhere unfamiliar, though last week I actually found my way somewhere using one of those ‘you are here’-type street maps. I was beside myself at the achievement. Thing is, I have an excellent visual memory and I’m highly observant, but putting details together to make a whole picture, forget it.

I have found my people!!! I can read a map really well but my problem with it is memory. Landmarks are completely unhelpful as you have to remember what to do when you reach it! E.g. which exit to come off at the Sainsburys roundabout or which way to turn at the old cock pub. It took me 3 months in my house to reliably emerge from my estate at the place I wanted to without using Google maps. Basically I use Google maps all the time. Before sat nav I used a to z and stopped a lot to check it 😂

I'm the same but I learned to use landmarks very early on in life....and I'm quite visual so I learn to navigate by "pictures" of the route.
I try not to use SatNav at all because it means I don't learn a new route. If I'm walking somewhere new I often turn round to see exactly what it looks like coming back, so that I recognise it on my return! Can't do that in the car though....

Same here! You're very much not alone by the sounds of it. Just occurred to me that there must be suggestions online about what can be done to help?
I plan journeys really thoroughly before embarking on them. And give myself loads of extra time for the inevitable panic!

I always lose the car in the car park , even if I've only left it for twenty minutes or something which is a pain when your pushing a big trolley about out of the shops trying to find your car in the rain and look like someone who knows exactly where the car is.
I got lost coming out the ladies in a restaurant once ended up wandering around a bit wasn't even drunk. How can you get lost coming out the same door you went in? I can!

Joining the ranks of the utterly hopeless and I was worse, if anything, before SatNav. DM bought me a SatNav when they first came out as ‘you can get lost in a paper bag’. I carried an A-Z for years in fear of my phone dying. I also get lost in hotels and it was a running joke at my first grad job that if I was in the lead going somewhere in the building I’d need to be hauled in the opposite direction to whichever way I set out for a meeting room.

Sounds like xh. He could miss a left turn take the next one and get lost going round the block. Me otoh left-handed female drove from Lymm to Brussels and only had to ask at one set of lights which way to turn. Don't know how I do it. After the second trip to Brussels he sulked for years

This thread has brightened my day no end. Thank you, OP.

I could cry reading some of your posts - it’s exactly how I feel! I’ve always struggled with my L and R (embarrassingly so and it’s the reason I’ve never learnt to drive)

I also am in a senior management role and do well in every other aspect of life EXCEPT if you were to ask me how to get to a nearby town from her that I’ve been to thousands of time I could tell you the start of the journey and see the end of it but the middle part is just black for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

After years of my DH (the human satnav) taking the piss I looked into it and it turns out it actually has a name = Directional Dyslexia

www.dyslexia-reading-well.com/directional-dyslexia.html

I can't use landmarks because I don't recognise them from a different perspective / angle. It's like I see things for the first time.

I am so grateful to know that I am not alone in this.

Been lost so many times it's embarrassing.
I feel your pain, but it's also good to know I'm not the only one who hasn't any sense of bloody direction at all! I've had the Micky taken out of me all my life about how lost I have been.
It is humiliating when others can go somewhere once and remember it.