No direction sense... anyone else this bad and why??

[fastandthecurious1]

I've had this as far back as I can remember and frankly I'm tired of making excuses and laughing it off... I honest have zero direction sense while walking or driving I know many people say this but I am sure it's not this bad for everyone.

I have to google map my way around my city even the half I'm extremely familiar with in term if family living there etc... I'm great with house numbers and street names but you try and get me a landmark or to remember a layout and I simply don't it's all blank and it becomes guess work.

Indoors is the same I can't tell you how many times in new jobs I go to the toilet or to another area abs I can't find my way back with maybe only 2/3 turns. I've become very good at covering this so only really my husband knows the extent of it... he has very patiently tried to help and he is so naturally gifted with direction but it's impossible I still google map my way to my town centre as I sometime take wrong roads and multi story car parks... my goodness I take sneaky photos to help me if I'm alone and still takes 3/4 times to get any kind of bearings.

I could go on but I'm hoping I'm being clear... anyway else came across this level of issue?

I'll add I don't struggle with any other areas at all..

Me. 100%. I can and do get lost anywhere and everywhere.
It's very frustrating.
It's like my brain is unable to grasp direction and where somewhere is in relation to somewhere else.

I went to a wedding in a hotel with a slightly unusual layout. I got lost every time I went to the bathroom or bar. I spent half the evening wandering around lost. I wasn't drinking so can't even use that as an excuse.

Are you very good at reading text upside down? My sense of direction is a bit shaky - not your level, but I do need maps the right way round and find it hard to process spoken directions - but I also confuse myself sometimes by reading a painted on No Entry while not realising it’s actually upside down and on the other side of the road….😳

Me too!!

I'm not alone!!!

some people navigate best by landmarks, and if that is your strategy, that is fine.

Also, when you get to a junction point on a route, turn and look behind you. Find and remember a landmark for the route that you came from. That will help you find your way back. otherwise things all look different coming from a different direction.

Me! It’s like an internal compass that everyone has is missing for me. I will go into toilets In department stores etc and literally not know which direction to turn on the way out!

stressful and limiting - thank god for Google maps but that doesn’t help inside 😬

I've found my people! About the only time I've managed to find anything, TBH

😂😂😂

Yep. Same here. I foolishly resisted satnavs and Google maps for many years. It was a family joke. Now though I accept it's something that doesn't quite click in my brain - the BBC ran an article on it a few years ago.

Not only have I now sense of direction, but I can't seem to remember/understand directions either. Turn left at the lights, carry on until the roundabout etc etc. pointless asking for help. Google maps is my friend

Yep! It took me more than 5 years to know whether to go left or right to get to my office when I entered the main building.
I get round it by being very good at navigating by visual cues but even then it's limited, as I sort of can't knit it all together. So I can 'learn' one route this way, but I've visited the same town for 30 years and still have no idea how to get from A to B.

Me! If I go into a department store I’ll get get lost, often can’t find my way out and even when I do exit the shop I will often walk back the way I’d been. I can’t visualise maps in my mind, nor can I reliably give directions. I’ve been like this since I was a child.

My dh says I don’t concentrate but I really do and I still get hopelessly confused. I have always said it’s like an undiagnosed form of dyslexia, I can’t read the physical space around me.

I’m the same.
I have dyscalculia though.

Yes, I struggle with this! No idea why though, perfectly competent with instructions, recipes etc usually.

This is exactly me OP, get lost everywhere. Didn't know my way around school.
I am autistic and possibly dyscalculic as well though.

Me but I never worry about covering it up! Is it that embarrassing? I find it kind of funny...I have other talents...

Are you also the kind of person who never knows which light switch turns on which light? I still just randomly press switches and I've lived in this house 18 months.

My friend has this. She has aphantasia too (no visual memory, doesn't/can't think in images at all) and I suspect it's linked - that she doesn't create an internal map as she goes so even if she's familiar with a place, it's still abstract and she can't picture what's beyond her immediate field of vision.

Me. To make matters worse I tend to walk ‘with purpose’, not deliberately, it’s just the way I walk. So people often follow me thinking I know where I’m going!! I don’t! I never know where I’m going!

This made me laugh!

I am endlessly lost. No internal compass - forever turning out of shops the wrong way, getting lost at work, doing circles round toilets. It’s a family subject of much mirth as are the remember when mum got us lost tales. I have learned some routes to places but if I don’t travel for a bit I still go wrong even when I have been using them for years. I find bars and shops I am walking to have often ‘moved’ til I get the sat nav out. I can’t picture anything either so I don’t think that helps! I was diagnosed with dyspraxia as a kid so I do wonder if the three things are connected. I am in all other ways entirely competent!

I'm the same, I also can't instinctively tell my left from my right, I have to consciously think about which hand I write with or hold up my finger and thumb to make an "L" to work it out.

So much of this is familiar to me. I've lived in the same house for 15 years. We have a panel of 4 light switches in one room. I'm still not sure which one turns on which light.
Interestingly I also have no visual memory.

@Fandangoes im the same I once led a whole group of people the completely wrong way during a fire drill. I walked with such conviction everyone followed me to a dead end thank god it was a drill and not a real fire 😬

I was shopping in an unfamiliar city. I went into a large shop that had exits on to multiple streets. I got so incredibly lost. I was certain I exited through the same door I had entered through - nope, not even close.

Jjeoreo - light switches are not predictable things.