Does anyone else have next to no sense of direction?

[ThePinkCushion]

It's so frustrating. I have almost no mental map of places in my head. Even places that I've been a hundred times I can still get lost when going there. I do have dyspraxia and I don't drive which is probably a good thing because I have enough trouble walking.

Can anyone else relate?

Oh god, this is me. It’s really embarrassing. I’m 40 years old and possess multiple professional qualifications to post-grad level, but can’t remember my left and right. I recently tried to lead a client into the car park of the building next door to that I’ve been working in for five years. It’s actually a real problem.

Yep- totally. I have aphantasia and have no mental maps ( or any other image) at all. I am the person that Sat Nav was invented for.

Yes me. A return journey to me is basically an entire new journey as it looks different coming back.

Same here, ds has a friend whose house I get lost going to every time. She's started meeting me at the school cos I'll just never get it!!!

Weirdly, I have a very well developed minds-eye, and a good visual memory. But when it comes to spacial things, I draw a blank.

Ps DHs fave story is how he came to collect me after a hen and I couldn't direct him so passed him onto a friend who told him to take the next big right. He hadn't told her what direction he was coming from or even where he was!!!

Me.
Definitely me.
But I can’t follow sat nav either, maps are just like Chinese writing to me.
I just can’t get directions even places I have been to numerous tomes I have to cut journeys down to street by street.
It’s very disabling.

Oh and my proudest moment was using sat nave and making it to a friend's house that was in a place forever away with terrifying ( for me) instructions!!!

And me I also have no spatial awareness and always end up choosing pans that are too small and Christmas trees that are too big!

This is me. I cannot invisage in my mind where places are in relation to me. I know where different counties are and what area on the map but even local places I can't work it out. 🤷‍♀️

I have dyspraxia and am very directionally challenged.

Poor DD has the worst sense of direction of anyone I've ever met. Satnav is all very well for put and about, but DD gets lost within buildings.

When she was younger she would get lost in friends' houses all the time (and once in a static caravan) and at infant school they had to put up a trail of pictures so she could find her way back to the classroom after going to the loo. It took her two years to learn her way around her secondary school.

Ironically, geography is her favourite subject at school and she is interested in studying it at university, after maybe taking a year out to work and go travelling. 😂

I've found my people

Threeleggedcat, I'm exactly the same with return journeys, everything looks so different!

I once got lost in a tiny wood. I was sobbing and blundering through the trees and all of a sudden I popped back out in a place I knew. I was probably 2 minutes away from civilisation the whole time! I was traumatised but everyone else thought the tale was hilarious

Yep! In the days before I owned a sat nav, I used to print out directions and tape them to my steering wheel (I was young.)

When we talk about places, my family often say to me - quite frustrated - "you do know where it is. You do. We've driven past it a dozen times." And I'm just like 🤷‍♀️

Me!

I once got lost in a house.

I have aphantasia too and just can’t picture where I am in relation to buildings etc. It can be very embarrassing. Even finding my way out of restaurants is difficult.

I'm so relieved to find others who can relate. If I'm on a bus and it's dark I have no idea where I am because everything looks so different, likewise return journeys.

If I'm going somewhere I've been numerous times I sometimes have a memory/sense of part of the way but I have to go somewhere tomorrow and though I've been 100x I have no idea which streets to take. It's so frustrating and embarrassing.

I also get lost in buildings, I've got lost in shops and once I had to phone my dh to rescue me from the lighting department in Ikea.

Does anyone else hate corridors with lots of doors? I never go out the right door when I leave.

In a restaurant, DD struggles to find her way back to the table after going to the loo.

I find shopping centres difficult. It just all looks the same. When I come out of a shop, how am I supposed to know whether to turn left or right?

Fortunately our local shopping centre is on a slope, and I can at least tell up from down.

Yes this is me I too love my Sat nav and sometimes get lost in large buildings. crosser you need to set your Sat nav to vocal directions it will even correct you if you go wrong.

I also get lost in restaurants and car parks.

Even with vocal directions I get lost.
I can’t picture which way I’m heading and am mystified by people who know which turning to take as I take the turning too soon or too late.
Then I’m totally lost.

Google earth is an absolute mystery to me, I have tried to follow the actual roads that I need to take to get to where I’m going but god only knows where I end up as it’s never anywhere near where I need to be.

I think that there is something seriously wrong with the wiring in my brain.

I can follow an ordnance survey map on a hike no problem, but trying to get somewhere in a car is whole different ball game! I actually build in "getting lost" time when I'm working out how long it's going to take me to get there.
I also don't instinctively know my left and right, I have to think about which hand I would pick a pen up with or make an "L" with my first finger and thumb to work it out.