Literally no sense of direction... at all

I'm the same, sadly I can't really say I've developed many tactics to deal with it beyond forcing myself to turn off the satnav after I've done it a few times to make myself learn the route better. Otherwise it can take me 10+ times of doing the same journey.

I also get lost in hotels, new buildings etc. very easily. I think the tip someone gave of very consciously registering 'landmarks' along the way e.g. fire extinguishers is a good one.

@notonmute I'm also terrible with faces! Specifically if I see people out of context, I find it impossible to place them. Eg someone from work in a shop, takes a few seconds to work out that I know them and then a few more to work out how and who they are.

Same here - no sense of direction at all! I get lost in shopping centres / car parks etc every time.
My DH just has to look at a toad and say oh yes that's North etc

No advice but I'm the same. I just figure I have other skills but direction isn't one of them!

I'm the same, same 50 min journey roughly monthly for 12 years (DH doing most of the driving usually TBF) and I still need to double check regularly.

When I'm going somewhere unfamiliar I always do a dry run by 'travelling' to the place I'm going on Google Street View first - and I make a note of any landmarks on the way.

If you are outdoors or in a car, ringing someone on a smart phone, you can’t be lost. It’s a GPS. It can pin your location down to a couple of metres.

I am also generally quite unobservant in life so I think part of my issue is that I don't notice landmarks. So my DH will comment on a lovely house/nice looking restaurant we've just passed, and I'll be completely oblivious. I once went to see a play where a live donkey was brought onto the stage. Afterwards everyone was talking about how they had managed it backstage and I had no clue what they were on about!!

Me too . It’s why I hate driving . I am the same in hospitals as well . Get lost whereas my OH a an find his way around easily .

It took me years to realise that why I hate driving anywhere new .

This is me I hold down a senior management job with a lot of responsibility. When it comes to directions it's like a blank spot in my brain. I just can't find places as OP said I have got lost on my way home from work .
I have no mental map no sense of direction . I have tried to improve and the landmark thing has helped a bit .
It's like direction me is a different person !!

Oh yes, I am absolutely like this and am glad I am not alone. I have a friend that I have known for almost 30 years and I still can't quite remember how to get to her house! In my defence she lives in one of those vast estates where all the streets look the same, but you'd think that after 30 years it would have started to sink in!!

If it’s anything like prosopagnosia, there’s no way to make your brain do it, but lots of tricks (like taking photos of parking spaces) to manage it. I don’t recognise my team at work until they’ve said hello and their name and I’ve clocked what they’re wearing that day - I just have ways of working around it.

I’d have a terrible sense of direction too I think if I had to rely on a sat nav, it’s such a narrow snapshot of a journey and doesn’t show anything but the immediate road ahead. There’s no context, no anchor. Just follow instructions. It’s like playing a driving game on a console then being set a task to draw the circuit from memory. Really hard.

I literally have a wall covered by a huge road map of the city in my study, and the other wall is a map of the world. Once you can see how everywhere relates to everywhere else, and you get a sense of yourself in the space, and know how you relate to it, and can internalise that, I think that helps.

I don’t have a terrible sense of direction but I do have a massive fear of driving on roads I don’t know, especially urban ones. So like you, I rely heavily on my satnav. What I do every time before a new journey is to ‘drive’ it on google streetview. Like all of it- every roundabout, traffic lights, junction etc. And I take note of the landmarks, street names or shop names at junctions where I need to turn or be in a certain lane, so turn right at the Chinese takeaway with a red door. That sort of thing. It works well for me.

I'm a bit like this but no so bad at routes I've driven, driving forces me to concentrate on routes more so they sink in. But if I'm on a high street and pop into a shop it takes me a few seconds when ibe come out again to work out which direction I came from and which way to turn to keep going in the same direction.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b084dnqr is interesting for a discussion about this. Not sure if link will work shared from Sounds.

I have no mind's eye, struggle to recognise faces, and am very bad at navigating and remembering routes. I suspect the three may be linked.

I'd there a name for this?
Is it treatable?

Oh you are not alone OP. I'm glad there are so many of us tbh as I thought it was just me.

I lose my car in car parks all the time. I always take a photo of the parking spot number and level I am on. If I have a photo I seem to be OK, if I didn't take a photo, we'll then I'm stuffed.

I also hate going to the loo in a shopping centre as I never know which way to walk out if there is more than one entrance.

Just this morning I took the wrong road in the school run.

And let's not talk about trying to do a zumba class at gym, or a dance with particular moves, like Jeruselma etc. I'm always going the wrong way and just cannot for the life of me remember the steps.

I use waze on my phone wherever I travel if it's slightly out of my comfort zone. Ie more than 3 or 4kms from my house.

JudgeJ I live in SE London and have done for about 20 years, but I have such an awful sense of direction that I cannot see what is wrong with what you’ve written

DH and I used to live in east London. It was at a time when all our friends were getting married, I think we went to nine weddings in a year. We would drive to them from home in east London the night before and stay over. One wedding was near Leeds. I remember us stopping at a services which was quite decent. The next wedding was in Southampton. Off we went. DH still tells everyone the story about me asking whether we would be stopping at that same services again as we stopped at when we went to Leeds.

I’m like this. It’s very stressful. I don’t have any massive issues with anything else just bloody directions!
If I’m in a hotel, I write notes on my phone, ie turn right out the room, walk past x, go down stairs etc. People laugh about it but I genuinely get pretty upset when I’m lost because it’s not like I can just wander around for a few mins and get back on track!

Topographical disorientation disorder! My husband has it. Really feel for him.

And I'm even scared on sat nav too as it once directed me down the wrong way of a motorway exit!!!! Luckily god was on my side and it was completely clear and wasn't catastrophic but that is how much my brain goes to mush when directions are involved..

I don't drive but I could literally have written your post. Was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was 9!
I have literally no sense of direction and when I tell my DH I have no internal map he thinks it's absolutely mental - he can't imagine not having one lol. Dyspraxia is way more common than we think but I've honestly just accepted my brain works a bit differently and that's OK.

My sense of direction is appalling, always has been. I am so grateful for my sat nav, it has helped me maintain a social life - no exaggeration. After I had Dc1, my ante natal group met up in various of our houses. I’d only just moved to the area, and had no idea where anything was (I’m not much better now, 13 years on) and is never have been able to join in had I not been able to get there with sat nav.

I am generally very organised too, so it’s not that. Two degrees and professional qualifications, so it’s not an intellectual thing.

I have no hand to eye co-ordination (cannot catch or hit a ball) - could that be linked? But am co-ordinated in other ways, I can drive, house is clean and tidy, I can put together flat pack furniture

I'm exactly the same! I could actually get lost in my own town that I've lived in all my life, no joke! I find it deeply embarrassing but I just have no sense of direction in the slightest, I just can't help it, my abusive ex (non driver) used to mock me and shout at me greatly. I too need sat nav wherever I go so you're not alone.