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..

And another one here! If I went away on holiday for two weeks, I had to re-learn the route to work as I had forgotten it. Once I got so lost, absolutely going in the complete wrong direction and heading for a busy motorway, I had to phone a taxi and pay him to let me follow him home. It took a while to live that one down. I prefer driving alone, I can’t cope with trying to get somewhere and someone talking to me.

Me too! I didn't know that other people had this inside buildings. Liverpool St Station is my nemesis, I genuinely can't find my way in or out. I also have huge problems understanding the M25. I'm fairly capable in other areas of life, so no idea why this is!

DDs got very good at the "Where's Mummy left the car" game very young!

I'm quite good at map reading which helps a lot. And my Sat Nav has a "Go Home" function.

I have this a bit, although not as bad as the OP. I've lived in or around london for nearly 50 years and still cannot make head nor tail of Covent Garden or what the hell is going on with Shaftesbury Avenue. I've realised I think all roads head directly north, south, east or west - curves do my head in - and that all junctions are 45 degrees. New York makes a lot more sense than london

Walking helps me - if I walk a route and discover that, say, Trafalgar Square joins up with Leicester Square via a certain route, then I remember that and can start to build a picture. But in my head, central london is still a series of disconnected puddles surrounded by grey space, rather than a single entity! It takes a long time, but I try to keep doing it - I read somewhere that learning new routes rather than relying on satnav can be a way to help stave off Alzheimer's (which runs in my family a bit)

Interesting about mental pictures. I read a lot of history and have never been able to follow descriptions of battles in books - so and so occupied the ridge northwest of blah and sent his forces across the plain to the forest of wang - they might as well be writing gibberish, I can't form a mental picture of it at all. If there's ever a written description of landscapes or faces I just skip them because they're just a string of unrelated words for me! But show me a diagram or a picture and it all makes a lot more sense.

I actually feel so much better that other people are like this too! I also struggle inside buildings and doing trips I have done for years. I don’t recognise anything when I repeat a journey. I also hate it when people assume you can find your way back by the doing the journey in reverse. It really limits me because I love exploring new places and would happily do so on my own but can’t because I would get lost. The amount of times I have lost my car is scary!!

When I was at school no one had heard of dyslexia - those kids were just labelled as thick. In the later years of my DC's schooling Dyscalculia became widely known. I'm convinced there is something which affects directional ability. I am not horrendous, I absolutely know my left from my right and yet when it's relevant to directions it's like there's a brain block. If I'm directing someone driving I can't say left or right I have to point and sometimes I think one thing and say another. It drives me crazy and DH gets pretty annoyed by it at times. I'm sure it's a widespread problem and maybe one day in the not too distant future they'll be a name for it.

This is me. Im a very capable person generally but I cannot manage directions at all

I used to take a pic of the street name when I parked the car so I could Google map it when it as time to go home. Luckily my new car tells me where its parked though the app so I no longer have photos of random street names in my phone.

I drive to the beach about once a month - it's only 5 miles away and I've been going for about 15 years. I still put the satnav on though!

I'm OK indoors but not so great if I have to go to a conference in a large centre. I once sat down in the wrong conference on my way back from the toilet

One of my friends recently got in contact with my old driving instructor and mentioned that I recommended him. He laughed and said that he remembered me well and I had an appalling sense of direction- that was 12 years after he taught me!

I believe it is called Developmental Topographical Disorientation and I absolutely suffer from it. Also no mind's eye. I find it hard to conjure up the faces even of my immediate family and DCs in my mind.

I find bars and shops I am walking to have often ‘moved’ til I get the sat nav out.

But in my head, central london is still a series of disconnected puddles surrounded by grey space, rather than a single entity!

This and This.
I have found my people.

I tell my daughter I am using Waze to check traffic, but actually I use it because I struggle to navigate across the town I’ve lived in for 30 years.

Me!!
The running joke is that I can get lost in a car park and frequently do.
I have familiar routes that I know and can use and I will rely on these exclusively. EG if I know I have to go somewhere in the city centre I will get as close as possible using one of my familiar routes. Then get a taxi the rest of the way.
I also get incredibly stressed and frustrated about being lost and will shout/cry (only when alone though) in frustration.

I strongly suspect this is linked to some form of ADHD and dyspraxia as I've other issues too but have never sought a diagnosis.

Me!! This is absolutely me. I have an excellent memory for facts and learn quickly, but haven't quite mastered left and right at the age of 42. I can get lost anywhere. Failed at learning to drive.

My OH accused me of having no sense of direction just the other day.

i have no idea where that came from.

Oh yes, this is me. I'm shockingly bad. I just can't get my bearings even with familiarity.

@TwistandSprout - to quickly tell left from right just hold up your hand and make an L shape with thumb and index finger. The L pointing in the right direction is left (my much younger cousin told me this when she was a kid - game changer for adult me )

Me! I am so glad to learn that I am not the only one.

Me! Not as bad as some other posters though.

I'm not to be trusted with a map. If I'm following Google maps when I'm walking, 90% of the time I'll go the wrong way.

I use Waze in the car, it seems to make a lot more sense to me than Google. However, I do eventually learn the journey and tend to remember it after a while.

I'm a visual thinker, yes. I see in pictures.

This is me! I once worked at an old school with a left wing and a right wing which mirrored each other exactly. I would walk into the quad every morning and forget which way to turn (left, it’s left). After two years, and just about remembering, they moved me to the other wing! And when I was pregnant (brain fog). Luckily, I used to get in early so I could do the morning chicken dance in the quad unnoticed.

I find bars and shops I am walking to have often ‘moved’ til I get the sat nav out.

I have a long-standing joke with my partner that people keep shaking London up and putting the bits down in different places, like the staircases in Hogwarts.

Me too.
plus maps. Cannot “read” maps.
even if put in my direction, they look like a scribbled mass. London Underground is just awful for me.
Satnav following still I get lost.
driving in new places, especially cities are very difficult.

Dyscalclia here too.

I have been nominated by a group of friends to drive everyone to a venue over 100 miles from my home town.
I have to pick them all up from their homes, I have been a couple of times to a couple of them, but have no idea how to get there.

Then drive, find parking at the venue then drive them all to different restaurants and then drop them all home afterwards.

I have the biggest car they said so it needs to be me driving.

Horrific.

I have terrible trouble daily. I have adhd so I can't remember directions, maps look like spaghetti and I struggle to recognise landmarks. I travel for my job so it can be super stressful. My friend does my nails and she still leads me down the stairs and out every time. I am learning to be less embarrassed by it. I once got lost on an underground karaoke place. Each group had their own room with black doors, I went to the toilet and couldn't find my group on the way back so another group asked me to join them so I did until one of my group found me.
I always take pictures when I park as I often get lost trying to find my car so at least I can show security and it speeds up the process.
I loved back woth my mum for 4 months last year and walked from my old school through the woods trying to walk the same route I took for 7 years twice a day and got completely lost and had to try and use Google maps to get out.
Most people are really kind when I explain I really struggle.

I'm a visual thinker too, but I also have no sense of direction.

Went out for a work lunch last week and got lost in the corridor back from the toilets.

Can only drive to places I've been many times before as otherwise I get lost. Struggle to follow satnav directions.

Can look at every junction on Google maps to try to pick out a landmark for each one, which helps but isn't foolproof.

I've no idea where places are in my county, even though I've lived here all my life and spend most work days looking at maps.

You see, when I am reading that I can’t grasp it at all. Luckily I am pre keyboard for everything, so I just ‘pick up my pen’.

like @ The Teenage years , I am vying for the worlds worst navigator in terms of instructions using left and right. It is a running joke ( hah ha on the whole) when I am giving instructions ‘right here’ - ‘do you mean right’ no sorry, left….

I am very good at map reading, though, proper maps in a big book not a tiny screen. When we did big journeys I would plan the route with the map and then write it down as instructions.

I'm like this. It once took me over 3 hours to find my way out of a department store! I think I saw a documentary about it a while back.
If I have to go somewhere new I usually practice the route a few times before I need to go there and/or find someone to tag along with. I also always allow myself loads of time if going somewhere new and make heavy use of Google maps.
My other thing is to just try to relax and accept it. So long as I'm not anywhere dangerous and I'm not late there's no harm done so just enjoy the day type thing. Central London is good for being a bit lost in as you'll always end up near a tube stop soon enough. In York you'll always eventually spot the minster. American cities are good because of the grid system and the numbers so at least you can keep going in the same direction.