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..

But only if the backs of your hands are facing you - if you do it with palms facing you you'll see the L on your right hand 😱😉

I'm exactly the same op to the point where I get very anxious going anywhere new. I can't even find my way back from the Loos in a new pub because everything looks back to front and I can't work out how to get back to my party - it's such a pain!!

I am directionally challenged too. I still use sat nav to do familiar routes as a back up. I can't picture how places join together, but I can think in images etc.

Inside buildings I'm terrible too.

My OH on the other hand has an inbuilt compass and can go somewhere once and remember the way.

It's really frustrating to have such a poor sense of direction. I hate it.

I am like this, it's so embarrassing at new workplaces when people say to go to a certain office and you have no clue or worry about losing your way. DH is the exact opposite and I don't think he understands at all when I worry about this. I always buy a brightly coloured car and that helps a lot in car parks. I also struggle with sat nav directions and large roundabouts, I only like to drive to familiar places

@zizza - don't tell me that!!

I'm the same! I have ADHD and definitely wouldn't meet criteria for dyslexia but I have a few symptoms of dyspraxia and dyscalculia. I also struggle with visual memory.

Fascinating thank you!

I am the same. By the time my eldest son was 2 he would help me find my way back to the car in car parks. I have to use a Sat Nav for journeys I have been doing for over twenty years. I can not see how places relate to each other either. This means I struggle to use previous knowledge or experience to find my way when I get lost. I am NT, so I think I am just a bit dense.

I worry that I might have to go to our hospital, 12 miles away in an emergency, they have changed the roads there so I am not familiar with it now, and being in a panic would make it a lot worse. I have thought about this much more recently with having to use own car rather than ambulance in an emergency.

Yes, the grid system is much easier, I feel happy going to Milton Keynes because of this, it's so much easier and the roads are numbered V and H 1-10 or possibly higher so you can tell where you are

I could have written your post word for word too. I can easily visualise people, things, places - in face that’s the only strategy I have for finding my way back from the loo in a strange place, by remembering ‘landmarks’ (on a 12 yard journey FFS).

I’m actually very capable in most aspects of my life and feel like this gives me a small insight into the difficulties people with dyslexia etc must experience. I feel lucky that my area of challenge doesn’t alter my employability or ability to get through everyday life. It does regularly make me look really stupid though and it’s surprisingly stressful. But it does give the kids a good laugh!

Ah me too. Never know where I'm going. Can't give accurate directions, can't follow them either. Don't know my left from my right. Am sure I have undiagnosed... Something. I have 0 spacial awareness as in I walk round continuously bumping into things.

However, my car does not have parking sensors and I have to exit my street via a tiny back alley with cars parked on it and I can navigate that better than my husband who's spacial awareness is excellent and who's car has (imo overzealous) sensors.

Totally bizarre. Maybe just practice though. If I do the same route I remember it eventually, but if I have to detour, not a clue.

I do remember working somewhere within walking distance but I always had to walk the 1.5 mile easy route whereas other people took the short cut through the housing estate which chopped of about quarter of a mile, I had tried this a couple of times but got completely lost and walked round in circles so gave up with that and took the easy long route.

I was confused for years about why when I walked down a street near where I lived I would come out and be at the "wrong" side of a crossroads, until I looked at a map and realised the street was curved

DH seems to have a sense of which direction he is pointing at all times, I definitely do not. I am good with a map though, it's just that I can't create the map myself. I get lost in office buildings and places like that with no landmarks.

I'm the same! It's become a family joke that my sense of direction is appalling. I'm dyspraxic which might have something to do with it

The other thing I struggle with is if someone shows me the building plan of a building, i just can't comprehend it it's just some colourful pictures

Also if someone has just moved house so I've never been there before and they describe what they're plans are to renovate I just zone out because I can't picture what they mean

@Doggydarling yep that sounds like you have aphantasia too. Have a Google of it. My friend never knew what people meant when they said they 'could never unsee' something because she doesn't have those visual memories. On the bright side, it means she misses people less as she's not able to fixate on visualising their last moments etc. She has more forward momentum somehow.

DH will talk about road numbers, as though I should know where they are. Before satnav, I used to do a recce for new places and make notes, like ‘turn left at the big tree’ or whatever. It took me ages to know which way to turn at the bottom of the stairs in my last job.

I try to style it out, but it’s pretty obvious I haven’t a clue. I think it’s dyscalculia and probably some dyspraxia.

Do you ever look at maps? Either paper ones or online. If I'm going somewhere new I'll often have a good study of a map and get a good idea of where everything is.

My husband never looks at maps but claims to have a bad sense of direction which is a bit dumb of him really. He literally follows his satnav with no idea what direction he is going in.

I can even get lost in a lift.....

I do, but it wouldn't necessarily help me if I was actually driving. I do tend to have a quick look at Google maps but generally can't remember by the time I get there. I try and do street view for like difficult junctions but I'm not sure whether it helps

My daughter has this problem.
I get calls saying, Where am I? if we go shopping together.

She is a extremely capable career woman who has raised 4 children so it's really frustrating for her.

Here's an article dysgeographia

Aren't people's brains so interesting?

Same. I also can’t tell which is my side of the bed in a hotel room. I have to lie on the bed with my eyes closed trying to imagine where I would be in relation to the room if it were my bed at home, and even then I often get it wrong.

Always go the wrong way when getting out of the lift at work, even when making a huge effort to get it right. I’ve only worked her 4 years 😭

Yea I find it very embarrassing, part of the reason I find driving so hard. I can do a route multiple times and it still feels as unfamiliar as the first. I get lost coming out of toilets etc every time. Can never find car in car park.

My husband is the opposite he seems to have an internal sat Mac. He can remember routes from places we’ve visited once years later.

I also struggle to judge distance as well, I find walking down unfamiliar stairs really difficult and have to do an odd slow one step at a time decent.

I have a reasonable sense of direction but there are 2 things I struggle with.

• if I do a route backwards, I get extremely confused re navigation. It's like it's totally new even though I just have to reverse it. There is a roundabout on the school run that in my head is 2 separate roundabouts (I know it's not really but there's an subconscious belief) because it looks different coming from the other way
• I am bad at knowing which way I'm facing, so I would be the person that walks in circles in the woods for days thinking I was going straight. My sister, conversely, instinctively knows that a path has led us around 90 degrees or whatever. My running partner would say "oh if we cut through here, we'll come out on x road" and I'd think we were miles away from there because I'd not realise we weren't going straight.

On the flip side, I can tell the time to the nearest 15 mins without a watch. I just sort of know how much time has passed.

I’ve found my people!

I am awful at directions. I’m visually impaired so I think that has a lot to do with it. I learn routes eventually by using landmarks but if my route is blocked I’m hopeless at working out a new one.

im worse in offices because they all look the same inside! I have one route in I use, and one set of toilets. If I try using any others I wander aimlessly until I come across a familiar spot by chance.

London is terrifying and I’m so glad I only go with friends who can navigate well!

London cab drivers have to do the Knowledge, how they do it is beyond me, the map just looks like a toddler got hold of the felt tip pens to me!