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??

Im quite good on directions and can go back to places Ive only passed. But I had to think very consciously about what is left and right. For my driving test, I wore pale Lemon nail polish on my Left and Red nail polish on my Right hand

I have this. I'm dyslexic so it's part of that.

When I check my watch I have to tell myself what is reasonable, is it 9.00 or 3.00. If it's early afternoon then it is 3, but the shape is the same.

I always wear a ring on my right hand.

Sames. You can't learn it, it's basically a bit of brain missing. Just got to learn strategies around it

I have this too. I also can't tell a b from a d when I write unless I think of the word bed as it looks like a bed with the head and foot boards. I'm an oxbridge graduate. I also have an odd system with numbers I created in primary school to be able to do basic maths and remember my PIN numbers as patterns on the keypad rather than a number sequence.

i’m in my 40’s and, yep struggle with my left and right. I am dyslexic though. My kids help me now!
I may be misremembering this but I think in my driving test I got it wrong and turned in the wrong direction, but I still passed as the examiner could see that I genuinely thought I was going in the correct direction.

The thing is if you were sat in a quiet room with no distractions and you think about your right hand it would probably come to you quite quickly. It's the combination of having to remember while other things are happening and the pressure to get it right too.

@Notjustabrunette you possibly did go the wrong way on your test it's not something they can fail you on.

I regularly went the wrong way when learning to drive 'turn left >'. I asked the question would it be a fail and was told as long as you do everything correctly for going in the direction you go in it's not a fail, ie indicate >, get in the correct lane, and go >, it's OK. Just don't change your mind what way you are going.

That said a poster up thread got it wrong and drove down a One Way street the wrong way so was failed but if it had been a normal two-way road she'd have been OK.

My DD, who was eventually diagnosed as (and I quote) "so dyspraxic we thought she had adhd" eventually just got a tiny L tattooed at the base of her left thumb.
this was after a rather traumatic " lost 300 miles from home in London and almost hysterical because she just didn't know what I meant trying to direct her over the phone" episode - very long story short.

As well as difficulty with left and right, I often read upside-down lettering without realising it’s upside-down. Could this be neurologically linked to difficulties with spatial orientation?

That sounds more complex than having to stop and think which hand is left.

Prior to adopting the my side / your side. It wasn't unusual for me to be flapping say my right hand, but say go left. Resulting in an argument because DH would follow the oral instruction rather than follow the flapping hand. I meant the other way I pointed 👉 that way

I do that, the road writing that says 'No Entry' and I think I can't go that way but it is upside down.

I also hate the no entry signs because I can read perfectly upside down so the orientation of the writing means nothing to me. It also means that holding up my left hand to see an L doesn't help as my right hand also makes an L, just reversed.

OP - my secret is I can’t remember the bloody alphabet. I have a scrabble mug at work as frequently work with documents that require definitions in alphabetical order and have to consult my mug before looking for something in a filing cabinet.

Daft question for all those left / right folk, how do you get on with aerobics classes everyone goes one way and you go the the other?

@Dinoteeth it's carnage. I'm not safe to be let out. The number of yoga classes I'm eyeball to eyeball the other person in my row... #awkward

I don't struggle with left and right but have a mental block around east and west for some reason

DH has this problem too.

If I'm driving and he's giving directions he'll say "next left".
I turn left and he says "No, I meant the other left!"

He can understand port and starboard.

I have a friend who teaches exercise classes and she has a problem because, of course, she's using the opposite terms when she is standing at the front demonstrating.
She's so used to that, she gets mixed up in everyday life!

Can’t do aerobics or yoga or anything like that unless following the person in front. Left/right instructions mean nothing. Cannot give sensible directions to a class of kids to teach them a simple dance. There’s an opportunity for carnage, if you like! Fortunately my colleague took over and allowed me to lead the visual arts instead! 😂