Left and Right confusion all my life!!

[Strawberrycream1]

I’m in my forties, held responsible jobs including managerial roles, I’m pretty level headed sensible and organised, but for the whole of my life I have never been able to remember my left from my right!!!
I have tried all sorts of ways to remember, I know about the L shape with your hand etc but I want to be able to just say to someone ‘oh yes you go first right etc’ when asked for directions, or be able to follow directions.

Why oh why can’t I remember, I can remember other things? Is anyone else the same, I have a total block on it and can’t figure out why??

And @Tromboncini !

Totally have this.
Driving with a navigator, I use my side /your side. I can't think quickly enough without it.

I wrote an R and a L on the base of my thumbs for driving lessons !

I am so glad you rote this OP.
I was at the opticians today and she was checking the health of the back of my eye. Instructions where top left/ top right etc. I got so confused she ended up-very politely- saying we will be going round in a clockwise circle. I was mortified but so thankfull she made it easy for me.
I used to be a lefty as a child and was taught to be a righty and I swear it has broke my brain when it come to left and right. It is a complete block.

I have this. All my life. No memory tricks really work, asked for a snap decision I will get it wrong 99.99% of the time. I’m right handed, and I know I make the Sign of the Cross with my right hand, but makes no difference to a quick decision or giving directions. I wear gold rings and bracelets on left (wedding and engagement rings are gold) and silver on the right - that’s helped in the 0.01% of times I’ve got it right. (I mean correct! 😂)

Husband and Father still know me by now, but still occasionally ask impossible questions (where is the sugar - in the cupboard on the …left? Right? I don’t know, in one of the damn cupboards, just open them all and look! ) or for directions.

Two out of three sons diagnosed dyspraxic but they don’t have left/right confusion. Just me!

I can’t do compass points either, unless I’m at home and know that the mountains behind me are west and east is where the sun rises at the end of the cul-de-sac. I have to turn a map to make it go in the same direction that I’m going … and then I will get left and right wrong if I’m giving directions anyway.

I am (was) right eye dominant as well as right handed. But.. too long a story for here…after extensive treatments for mystery condition and finally surgeries I spent a few months after being legally blind, relying on just left eye. I was a hobby artist and photographer before that. The first time I tried to draw I was all over the place, and had to teach myself how to draw again with crayons. I kept missing the surface with paint brushes (wonky depth perception). it’s all getting better but still wrestling with the camera! I’m sure there’s a phd in all this for. A neurologist or some related specialty. 😂

Never Eat Shredded Wheat - clockwise. Or alternatively if you can imagine a map of Great Britain, Wales is West and East Anglia is East. The USA is the West and Russia is the East (but don’t start confusing yourself with Alaska, Siberia and the Bering Strait…😂).

I think for some of us, this left/right issue is caused by the language bit of our brain being poorly connected to the part that deals with bodily sensations and our sense of space. It may even be that a sense of direction is one of those abilities that get sacrificed in favour of working as a team with others; I know I only remember my way to somewhere when I’ve gone there on my own.

Yes, me too. It’s a bit of a joke if I am trying to give directions, ‘left, left’ ‘do you mean left’ ‘oh no right’

oddly, I can read a map and decide on routes really competently, better than most people. I just can’t explain it on the move in left/ right terms.

I have trouble with political allegiance , too.

Are you married OP?
Wedding ring is on the left usually, so unless you did it differently, you could look for your wedding ring.

I have this too and it’s very frustrating. As someone else mentioned I also struggle with inside/outside lane. I also find it hard when people say eg next Wednesday when it’s nearly a Wednesday or next week when it’s close to a new week. I often have to ask my DH to clarify what the person meant 🙈

Oh and for all the tips like what hand do you write with. In the moment, although I know right, I can’t seem to process this, same with rings. Only thing that helps is making the L shape with left hand. Would be nice to not need to do this!

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen I can identify with the left left, or your other left thing too.
And yes I'm very good at directions from a map back in the day I used to do my directions using arrows.

Re compass their is the Never Eat Soggy Weetabix thing if you can remember if it goes clockwise or anticlockwise but the compass should read WE

www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24833101-300-why-do-some-people-struggle-to-tell-right-from-left/

1/3 of people according to one study

"What can be done to help? There are techniques to distinguish left from right – for example, extending the left thumb at a right angle to the index finger forms the letter “L” to identify the left hand and side. However, research I have carried out indicates that this method isn’t foolproof."

I'm fine with NSEW on a 2D map, where north is always up. That makes sense. It's just when I try to apply this to the actual 3d world, when north can be any which way. And I have to mentally rotate myself or the map ...aargh nope.

And then someone might give me a direction like "drive north on Victoria street" with no reference to any kind of map.

I'm terrible for this. Am sure I have dyspraxia. My optician just says 'Look right... now look other right' now because he knows I'm basically guessing! I had to stop driving for medical reasons a few years back and it was such a relief! I dread having to give directions though.

Just an idea ;)
Lauren Winzer, a tattoo artist in Sydney, Australia, posted a photo of a client who requested that the letters “L” and “R” be permanently inked on her hands to help her navigate the world!

My mouth and hands miscommunicate when navigating. DH knows to trust the hands because my mouth will blurt the wrong one randomly. My hands know what they're doing.
I'm great at recognising places and memorise routes easily. I find reversing things like exercise moves harder and have to concentrate on is it the limb in front/ behind, opposite/ same.

DS 11 is dyslexic, dyspraxic and autistic. Has a weak dominance of what to do with his hands. Struggles with left and right. But bloody good at landmarks.

DS 9 may be dyslexic. He's getting the hand of left and right by manually thinking about where we sit in the car. Also good on landmarks. He recently navigated for me when my bluetooth wasn't working properly and he did a great job with instructions like 1 o'clock at roundabouts. It was a rusty route and the first couple of miles were unfamilar, but he did really well at thinking it all through and didn't send me wrong.

This is all really interesting to me, because I'm entirely the opposite, and can't imagine what it must be like to not be able to know left from right instinctively.

How are you all with map reading?

I'm the same. It's a massive problem. I'm 53 and have yet to find a solution other than total concentration 🥴

Map reading is good, I can picture that I'm going < then to A123 then > I know what way I want to go.

The issue is the words and verbally getting it right that < is left. Especially in a pressure situation with other stuff to think about it.

I was directing someone to my house from about 300yds away and sent them the wrong way. 🙈

I don't have this issue but if I did I think I would give my feet pet names -left and right. Say it every time you put your shoes/socks and think about their names whenever you look at them. Then anything nearest to Left is left, etc.

Put your hands palm down in front of you. Your left hand makes an ‘L’ with the forefinger and thumb. L for left.

I am exactly the same. I can read a map, follow a satnav etc but I cannot give directions that make sense to anyone else. I have quite a friendly face I think so people do ask me for directions ... I dread to think where some of them have ended up.

Thinking about it now, when I look at a map before going somewhere or even when I write it down in advance, I'm not actually thinking left, right - I'm thinking 'this way ', 'that way'. So it makes sense to me and I can personally get to places, but can't follow instructions or give them in a comprehensible way.

Quite possibly my worst one was when I was getting all flustered with a paper map, we'd gone wrong several times already due to left not actually being left etc and it was all a bit tense. We got to a junction and I was like ah shit, what the fuck way is it, I mean I know what the map is saying so I sort of waggled my hands and blurted out 'TURN WEST'. DH actually lost the plot at that point.

I get confused too. It takes me a few second to remember which side is which.

I have to feel my wedding ring to know which is left - even though I’ve not worn one since I got divorced in 2004! However, both my sons are dyspraxic and I’m pretty sure I have some traits as well.

Don’t get me started on directions. My nickname is ‘Twatnav’