Has anybody on here got a terrible sense of direction? And does it embarrass you?

[Wisteriabloom]

Just wondering if I'm the only one, or if there are others too! Here are some examples -

If I get up from where we're sitting, in an airport, large restaurant etc to go to the loo/my turn to get the drinks etc, I have trouble finding my way back unless I literally make notes of landmarks - (ie, turn right by statue, past huge mirror, turn left by the bar etc). I now know to do this and it REALLY helps, after embarrassing experiences of panicking and being completely lost on the way back and whoever I'm with coming to look for me, incredulous that I couldn't remember the way!😳

Also, I'm not a driver and recently had some friends staying. We were going to a restaurant one evening, (it's one that dh & I have been to fairly often). But have walked or bussed there, as both non drivers.

This time our friends were driving and I was in the car trying to direct, (dh was meeting us there as had been somewhere else). There was a diversion in place and I just couldn't think of any other route to direct them, other than my 'normal route' that we now couldn't use! We got there eventually (a bit late!🤔) and I could tell my friends were a bit confused I was struggling to direct, as I'm a Local, and have lived here years!

I do have Dyspraxia btw, however i manage to hold down a responsible job, am talented in music & languages, and a great cook, but my navigation skills are embarrassingly close to zero!

Even at school I can remember it taking months before I confidently knew my way around (new secondary school) whereas my classmates, even the less academic ones had cracked it in the first week!

I can also struggle to recognise places if I'm travelling to them from another angle, ie, I can get from A to B easily, but to get from A to C I'd have to go via B, even though it takes twice as long!😳

As I've got older I've developed coping strategies, ie, noting landmarks and practising routes if I know I'll be expected to direct but it can be debilitating! Dh just can't understand it, I reckon he was born with an inbuilt SatNav! He deliberately walks behind me for amusement if we're staying in a hotel, as he knows it will easily be a couple of days before I can get from our room to Reception without making a wrong turn, so frustrating!! Just wondered if anybody else has this issue!

Yes! It’s so bad it’s really embarrassing and I really can’t function like a normal person when it comes to finding my way anywhere. I even get lost in certain parts of my office. I am very intelligent and have a professional job, there’s just a bit of my brain that is missing. I refuse to feel embarrassed though and just own it, I feel like it’s some form of disability and don’t see why I should feel bad about it.

I’m so terrible it’s actually embarrassing!!

I also can’t give directions, the park was at the end of the road, but I couldn’t get that out in a understandable way and instead probably confused her further. I just don’t give them anymore.

I genuily get lost in my own town and also forget what way to turn off my road- it’s pathetic, I’m not even old so can’t claim that!

Absolutely awful. DD’s take the piss out of me and have to remind me which way to get back to the car for example.

It doesn’t bother me too much as I’m fairly confident out and about and don’t mind being lost as long as I’m not late etc. Google maps is my absolute saviour I follow the blue dot around constantly!

I once came out of a hotel when backpacking in Vietnam. Turned right and walked along the road about 100 yards and went into a restaurant. Came out and retraced my steps and couldn’t find the hotel. To this day I’ve no idea what happened but had to get a taxi bike back! That was before gps on phones!

The remembering landmarks thing is really useful, it took me about 8 years to know the way to my mil. Once I actually consciously tried I got it in 3 or 4 goes, sometimes I think it’s just lack of attention.

Hopeless sense of direction, appalling at map reading. It used to really bother me and make me super anxious. I put tactics in place to deal with the consequences - leave plenty of time to arrive, give people a postcode and suggest SatNav and crucially admit to anyone who asks that I'm not the person to give directions! Now it doesn't bother me. I've found some utterly amazing coffee houses when I've arrived places early and have never yet had a single person refuse to either give me directions when I ask or apologise because they're as bad as me and we have a laugh. Embrace it :)

Yep!!!

My sense of direction is excellent, whereas DH is dreadful. He normally drives so I can navigate. We recently moved house, and 9mths on, he still checks which way some shops further away are, whereas I could just drive there without help the 2nd time!

I used to think he was joking about not remembering somewhere we had been multiple times- but it seems not. He has no medical or learning issues, just a dreadful sense of direction.

I'm the same OP. No sense of direction at all, completely reliant on Google maps and taking photos of landmarks. If I'm well and truly lost then have used taxis in the past!

Also, similar to what BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs said, I have no concept of size unless I actually see the object - online shopping can be a huge gamble for me as sometimes I think I've found a really good deal and it turns out I bought a miniature version of the product (did that for my wedding - turned out I got 50 bottles of miniature 250ml wines! Which I ended up giving out as favours instead).

I've just embraced it as part of who I am, plus it provides easy entertainment to my family and friends (admittedly at my expense!). I've learnt to laugh along too.

I am just like this and I feel so silly at times. My colleagues find it highly amusing, as do my family.
I love it when I realise I finally know my way somewhere or the layout of something. And then I can't imagine not knowing before.
And as someone said, I too have been 'trapped' in a motorway service toilet!

Yes, I'm completely hopeless.

My dd is brilliant at it and has been from being tiny. Like a PP said, it's like a superpower to me. I love going to new places with her cos we never get lost! When she was 6 she went on holiday abroad with my mum and aunt. They went on a day out (driving), got a bit turned around trying to get back and dd piped up from the back seat to direct them home . This is a trip she had seen once, going the other way.

Boggles my mind how people do it!

But no, I'm not embarrassed. I'm good at other things and shit at this thing.

Me. I have to make a mental note of landmarks or I’ll never find my way back from anywhere.
OTOH I’ve always been a good map reader.
Dh used to have a fantastic sense of direction - until he started relying on the satnav for everything. A case of use it or lose it…

I once read that men typically have a better sense of direction than women, because they have higher levels or iron in their blood, and apparently we have iron deposits in the nasal area. And because the earth is a magnet….
Hence ‘follow your nose….’
Makes some sort of sense - to me anyway.

No not me im like a homing pigeon

Yes but also Dyspraxic as fuck I just embrace it now. Each trip out is an adventure!

Yes this is me. I have to consciously note where my car is in a car park or I forget. It's like I park and my brain switches off . I really struggle with memorising routes and finding my way back when I go to the loo. I suspect I have dyspraxia as I was also known as 'clumsy' as a child.

I'm like it too op. I find it quite debilitating. I'm being assessed for adhd and apparently it can be another indication in conjunction with other issues.

I'm not quite this bad but do really struggle with how things fit together and can't visualise it unless I've seen a map, even then sometimes it doesn't make sense to me.

I don't find it embarrassing as a rule but DH is frequently baffled!

Yes, me too. Lost count of the number of times I've ended up in a pub's kitchen rather than the bar thanks to a wrong turn.

Coming out of a shop in a mall is a nightmare, no idea whether to go right or left. I get lost on walks, did 6 miles the other day instead of 4. Might have to do a journey 10 times or more to remember it, and can't turn the route round in my head to get home. Can never find the car in a car park either.

Hotels are a nightmare, no idea how to get to the restaurant, reception, the pool. My theme tune us 'let's go round again' because I always have to do that at strange roundabouts.

Last year I got lost doing a trip I've done 100s of times, but hadnt done for a year. Went North instead of South, miles out of my way.

Weirdly, I can find my way round strange hospitals - I've worked in the NHS for years, so no idea if it's that.

Can rent out my DH if needed. He writes fantastic directions, in a perfectly understandable way. So it'll be 'left at the pub where we had that terrible meal last year then straight over that roundabout you hate. After that keep going, turn right as soon as you see Sainsbury's, follow the road to where it goes a bit gravelly and go down the side of the blue gate'.

I have ADHD as well.

There was a street near where I used to live that was curved and joined two other streets that were at a right angle to each other. I could never get my head around how I could go down that Street and be in a different direction.

Me! I'm terrible, I just can't turn a map around it my head, if it's 50:50 interpreting the right direction to turn... I'll be wrong! Can't do it at all.

I remember directions to places I know fine, just reading maps I'm awful.

When we got a satnav we agreed it wasn't so much about it getting us where we wanted to go as avoiding arguments - I hated reading maps to DH, it made me so stressed and we ended up yelling. We call satnav 'the anti-argument device'.

This is me too. Embarrassed myself countless times.

Thank you for all your comments, it's reassuring to know there are others like me! Yes, it's a problem we have, that people with a 'normal' sense of direction just can't fathom!!
The poster who mentioned struggling to get to a theme park she'd been to before reminded me of Eurodisney. We went by train (luckily, so no problems getting there!) But - on our last day there there were long queues and both our children wanted to go on different rides, so dh took the eldest on hers and I took ds to the one he chose. I suggested meeting afterwards at entrance to Main Street, knowing I'd have no problems finding it!😉 Dh said 'No point in that, let's meet at the cafe where we had ice creams on the first day, we'll be nearer the hotel'! You've guessed it, I came off the ride with ds having NO clue as to where this place was! I remembered being there, obviously, but not iwhere it was in relation to anything else! Dh could see me wandering from the cafe window, phoned me and directed me, more than a little frustrated!! With reason, it was last day and we were on a time limit. It's mortifying, but I can't help it! If I KNOW I need to remember directions, I'm prepared as I've made notes, but with no warning, no chance! Dd is similar, so I do think it's genetic🤔

Seriously. It’s so bad. I just can’t recognise places at all. Or directions. If I see a roundabout or anything from a different junction, I won’t know it’s the same place. There’s loads of places in my city that I haven’t realised are the same place but from a new angle, until someone has pointed it out. I also don’t see faces very well. I can read a map fine, park cars well and have spatial awareness, and can follow instructions well though or put together IKEA stuff. It’s just recognising places and faces that I can’t do. And if I have two places in my head, eg my house and town, I can’t imagine the bits in between. I’m also the same as your A to B and A to C description.

So glad I'm not alone. I do drive and can drive a memorised route but if I get diverted I can't think how to get back to where I need to be, it's like the bits of the puzzle don't fit together. I think my internal compass is broken as DH & DD seem to have an innate sense of where they are heading. I have often suspected I have dyspraxia - can't catch or throw, can't function without lists and can't multi task.

Yes, me. I hate it and find it really embarrassing.

I am forever getting lost whenever I drive anywhere.
If I’m in a restaurant and need the loo, I make DD come with me otherwise I will get lost trying to find my way back to the table.
Plenty of times I’ve found a great job I’d like to apply for within a big company, but I just know I will be forever getting lost in the building, so I don’t even bother applying
I always go the wrong way when I leave a hotel room.
Always get lost in hospitals, even when I follow the signs.
But as some pp have said, I’m good with a map!

I have found my people, so happy to know you are all out there (wandering around aimlessly, but out there)

No longer embarrassed and everyone who knows me just hauls me in the right direction as required. DH incredulous when he first knew me is now resigned. When I used to stay away a lot for work I’d be the one still carefully following the arrows to my room at the end of the week. Many years ago a colleague cheerfully remarked that he knew which floor of our three floor office the next meeting was on because I’d started up the stairs and therefore we needed to go down the stairs.