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?

Christmas trees that are too big! - No, you’ve lost me now. No such thing! 🤣

My friend is terrible with directions. She has been to my house countless times, and still needs to call me from the bus stop so I can guide her in when she visits.

She once attempted to travel to Brighton, from Croydon on the train. It was only when she went over the Thames that she realised she was going in the wrong direction.

She also once went the wrong way on the circle line. She was nervous about getting off and finding the right platform to go back, so she stayed on and went all the way around instead. A 2 min journey took her over an hour!

I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction but struggle with telling left from right, which means I am useless at giving people directions.
If a driver stops and asks me where some place is, I usually say I don’t know, even if I do, because I know I will get a left or right turn muddled up and send them the wrong way...

Finally i feel less of a freak - there are other people like me!

I don't think i can even explain this, but i have a thing where in front of me always feels like north, behind me is south. If i turn left or right, then in my head I've turned a full 90 degrees. Everything feels like a straight line. My mind just can't cope with the reality of roads with curves and bends, streets not being parallel, the fact i might be heading east etc etc

I regularly get lost going to places i know well and have been to before

Embarrassing!

I identify so much with this. I do have a good sense of visual imagery/mind’s eye but just have no sense of direction. I can’t remember or orientate myself well at all.

I am a constant source of disbelief and frustration to friends, I can drive somewhere literally tens of times and have no idea how to get there without direction. When I worked further away (still within 45 minutes drive) I used to have to put the sat nav on. I am geographically broken.

Me too

This is me.

And to make matters worse, I also appear to have one of those faces that make people think I would be the perfect person for them to stop and ask for directions.

Then I get that horrible sinking feeling when I watch them go off in completely the wrong direction because I've explained badly...

I have dyspraxia too. Come out of shops and dont know which way to go. Get lost in buildings.

Me too I can't even find my way out of shops. I have used the local town all my life and I still have to follow a set route to different shops or I get lost. I never passed my driving test because I could never remember any routes so driving instructor saying to me "be prepared you know what is coming up" was a complete nonsense because I hadn't got a clue. I have to pretend I'm a visitor if anyone asks me directions because there is no way I can tell anyone directions.

Me too! I can barely find my way out of a cul de sac!

It doesn't help that google maps hates me. I sometimes use it to find my way home and when I get to where I know where I am it tells me to go a different way! The wrong way!

Yep me too! The anxiety it causes me is huge

I have nightmares about this. Even walking to work and having done it many times, sometimes I get lost.I am not dyspraxic. Sometimes it reduces me to tears. I am now going to read the ft to share others' experiences.

I have a poor sense of direction, get stressed driving somewhere newish. Both DCs have a better sense of direction than me- first noticed this on holiday when eldest was just 3 and seemed to know the way round the resort better than I did.

Do any of you get this in dreams too? I have it in real life but also have dreams where I can't find my way to my destination and end up crying in my sleep?

It's not directions I have a problem with but size or distance. I simply cannot visualise what a yard looks like or how big things are. I've just bought some garden pots I thought were the right size and the are ridiculously oversized by about 500%. I just don't have a clue. I'm trying to give an example typing this of how big I wanted them to be and can't even do that!

Me! DH can't read a map but is like a homing pigeon once I've read the map to get us there.

I need the map to get back because I have no sense of direction!

Ha Ha, me too.
I'm terrible with distance too. The family don't even trust me with a shopping trolley, I've taken many a person out.
Mine is dyspraxia and clumsiness.

Me too. I drive & I know right from left but maps, directions etc, no clue. Sat Nav wasn't made for me either. I can easily get list driving home on a bad day. I also don't know motorway names, so if someone is directing me to somewhere I've been before, I need landmarks not road names. I also don't know the difference between the inside & outside lane (which is which) or near side etc etc.

I thought it was just me!

I used to suffer terrible anxiety going anywhere because even familiar routes would be forgotten if I didn't do them for a while. Me and Sat Nav Emma, we're old friends now!

I used to come down the stairs at the school I worked at and be unsure whether to turn left or right at the bottom.

I hate going to the toilet in restaurants because I invariably end up getting lost on the way back and ending up in private quarters or the kitchen.

I hate it when DH tells me to take the A356 or B612. That means nothing to me. I cannot go anywhere new without the satnav. And even then I can get lost.

I get lost in restaurants & recently I was at a trade show & I had to keep calling my colleagues to find my way back to our stand. I also can't tell if clothes will fit me, or DS or DH, just by looking at them. I don't recognise if people are tall or short unless it's extreme.

I have found my people (somehow )

I can't follow Google maps, I never know what direction is what. I can go somewhere time and time again and still not know my way around.

I get lost in buildings, cant remember what way I've been or what way I should be facing.

Oh yeah, I'm one of your tribe!

I've ended up in the wrong country by accidentally confusing a toll booth and border control on a map.

And there was the time I missed a turning looking for a supermarket and 15m later found myself at the gates of a nuclear submarine base.

Both stories that will out me if any of my pals are on here...

Me, I'm useless, thank god for sat navs. Many a row in the car with me struggling to map read, I just cannot do it.