Literally no sense of direction... at all

[Pippa12]

I’ve just had a complete melt down as my sat nav had technical difficulties and I couldn’t get it to work. I’ve done this 40 minute journey every week for 5 weeks now, but I cannot for the life of me get there and back without GPS.
I rung my husband in blind panic (again!) and although he’s calm and kind, he’s completely perplexed at my lack of directional skills and feels there is more to it.

I struggle with directions and remembering how to get to places everyday. I rely heavily on my Sat Nav for the shortest of journeys. If we are in a hotel for instance, it will take a good few days before I can confidently get to reception/pool or navigate round the resort. I am otherwise fairly clever and together person with a technical job in a managerial position with lots to organise and execute, but why oh why can’t I get from A to B without assistance.

Anybody else have similar experiences and any ideas how to improve this after 37 years of bloody embarrassment and torment!

I'm 41 educated and I think reasonably intelligent. So far have raised two reasonable DC and the year before last I got lost 3 times in car parks and had to find my way out. Once the year before that I got lost walking in a multi storey and thought the car had been stolen.

This weekend drove to a place we go regularly and got the wrong roundabout exit twice. We had been there the day before!

My brain simply doesn't understand directions. DP often tells the story that whilst stopped on a journey between Birmingham and London we had this conversation

"Which services are you at Shiny ?"

" What do you mean which services? The one on the motorway ?"

Long suffering sigh "Yes Shiny but which motorway?"

" oh right well its either the M42 , the M40 , I'm fairly sure its not the M25 and im definitely not on the North circular "

*DP quietly weeping in frustration "

I've commuted all over the UK regularly and I always get where I need to be. I just have no concept of actual direction and have banned DP from telling me its south or north without also telling me to navigate by passing retail parks

Are any of you really bad with remembering faces? I am, and I know a few other people who are both prosopagnosic and have real trouble with directions / routes. I’ve wondered if there’s a related bit of brain that just doesn’t quite work.

I can read a map, walk on a bearing, spot landmarks etc. Just can’t work out where I am without some sort of clue other than how I got there.

I thank god for my sat nav - without it my life would be so much more constrained due to my terrible sense of direction.

All journeys I know are a set of landmarks radiating out from my house - I have no clear idea of how they relate to each other. I suspect some level of dyspraxia. I wrote L and R on my hands when I was learning to drive. DH is extremely tolerant of my inability to know where anything is but I can’t help it!

I do think that having access to GPS can make it worse, as you have no need to keep an eye out on any landmarks, you just follow the directions.

I’m like this- lord knows how I’d have coped without a sat nav. Trial and error I suppose!

I have a family member who has lived in the same small city for about 30 years, in about four different properties. There are quite a few places she goes to regularly where, in order to get there, she has to first drive to the first property she lived in. The journey only makes sense to her from that spot. It's batshit to me. Sometimes she'll be driving five miles out of her way in the wrong direction. Repeatedly. Odd.

I have this too. If I go to the toilet in a restaurant I usually can't find my way back to the table, it's actually embarrassing. When I was younger going to nightclubs I would have to stick close to a friend all night because if I went to the bar or toilet alone I'd never be able to find my way back and would just end up wandering around lost for ages trying to find my friends again.

Some people know directions and others don't. Google maps has been an absolute life saver.

I'm like this too. If I'm walking somewhere that I can't rely on someone else (my partner is like a human sat nav, it fascinates me) I use the notes app in my phone to mark down some key points "turn left at x hotel" etc. I also Google street view places before visiting. Sense of direction doesn't seem to be something I can teach myself, so I've just learned ways to cope.

A previous poster mentioned being bad at recognizing faces - I struggle loads with this too. I will need to meet someone a dozen or so times before I could reliably recognise them out context.

Hi OP, I am the same. I used to work in a job where I had to visit clients at home within say. 10 mile radius of me. I visited the same clients every week and relied on the satnav every time, panicked on the occasions it didn't work and once got really really lost when it didn't work.

How are you at parking? I am useless at it despite being a reasonable driver in other ways. Go to lengths to avoid parallel parking and if I have to do it it takes several attempts.

I tried to learn to ride a motorcycle once, found it completely impossible. I feel like it's all related somehow.

@Elouera

Can you use an A to Z directory when the sat nav stops? How did you navigate prior to sat navs? Can't you use the sat nav on your phone instead?

I rarely use the sat-nav, they send you where they want you to go, not where you want to go. Driving across country from Wales to Norfolk the sat-nat was determined to get us onto the M6 and later onto the A1 ! Keep a map in the car, I have an OS map and it's wonderful for avoiding the summer jams.

I am exactly the same!!! Literally exactly! Following this with interest!

@NotOnMute. Yes! That's me. I am always worried about coming across as scatty, rude and disorganised when I'm actually not any of those, I just can't do faces or directions!

I'm brilliant at getting lost. DH finds it hilarious. He stores up stories of places I've got lost. DDs are his accomplices and fill him in if I get us lot. His favourite is the Scout camp where I went to the Supermarket and got lost on the way back. You can see the campsite from the shop...

I learn landmarks. But I can't tell you where places are in relation to each other. I love Sat Nav.

My daughter once decided to visit Stratford when driving from Cambridge to us in the North West. She rang us in a panic, Why am I on the M25??? At the time few people had heard of Stratford, east London, blame the sat-nav and a total lack of common sense!

I'm exactly the same! I could actually get lost in my own town that I've lived in all my life, no joke! I find it deeply embarrassing but I just have no sense of direction in the slightest, I just can't help it, my abusive ex (non driver) used to mock me and shout at me greatly. I too need sat nav wherever I go so you're not alone.

My sense of direction is appalling, always has been. I am so grateful for my sat nav, it has helped me maintain a social life - no exaggeration. After I had Dc1, my ante natal group met up in various of our houses. I’d only just moved to the area, and had no idea where anything was (I’m not much better now, 13 years on) and is never have been able to join in had I not been able to get there with sat nav.

I am generally very organised too, so it’s not that. Two degrees and professional qualifications, so it’s not an intellectual thing.

I have no hand to eye co-ordination (cannot catch or hit a ball) - could that be linked? But am co-ordinated in other ways, I can drive, house is clean and tidy, I can put together flat pack furniture

I don't drive but I could literally have written your post. Was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was 9!
I have literally no sense of direction and when I tell my DH I have no internal map he thinks it's absolutely mental - he can't imagine not having one lol. Dyspraxia is way more common than we think but I've honestly just accepted my brain works a bit differently and that's OK.

And I'm even scared on sat nav too as it once directed me down the wrong way of a motorway exit!!!! Luckily god was on my side and it was completely clear and wasn't catastrophic but that is how much my brain goes to mush when directions are involved..

Topographical disorientation disorder! My husband has it. Really feel for him.

I’m like this. It’s very stressful. I don’t have any massive issues with anything else just bloody directions!
If I’m in a hotel, I write notes on my phone, ie turn right out the room, walk past x, go down stairs etc. People laugh about it but I genuinely get pretty upset when I’m lost because it’s not like I can just wander around for a few mins and get back on track!

JudgeJ I live in SE London and have done for about 20 years, but I have such an awful sense of direction that I cannot see what is wrong with what you’ve written

DH and I used to live in east London. It was at a time when all our friends were getting married, I think we went to nine weddings in a year. We would drive to them from home in east London the night before and stay over. One wedding was near Leeds. I remember us stopping at a services which was quite decent. The next wedding was in Southampton. Off we went. DH still tells everyone the story about me asking whether we would be stopping at that same services again as we stopped at when we went to Leeds.

Oh you are not alone OP. I'm glad there are so many of us tbh as I thought it was just me.

I lose my car in car parks all the time. I always take a photo of the parking spot number and level I am on. If I have a photo I seem to be OK, if I didn't take a photo, we'll then I'm stuffed.

I also hate going to the loo in a shopping centre as I never know which way to walk out if there is more than one entrance.

Just this morning I took the wrong road in the school run.

And let's not talk about trying to do a zumba class at gym, or a dance with particular moves, like Jeruselma etc. I'm always going the wrong way and just cannot for the life of me remember the steps.

I use waze on my phone wherever I travel if it's slightly out of my comfort zone. Ie more than 3 or 4kms from my house.

I'd there a name for this?
Is it treatable?

I have no mind's eye, struggle to recognise faces, and am very bad at navigating and remembering routes. I suspect the three may be linked.

I'm a bit like this but no so bad at routes I've driven, driving forces me to concentrate on routes more so they sink in. But if I'm on a high street and pop into a shop it takes me a few seconds when ibe come out again to work out which direction I came from and which way to turn to keep going in the same direction.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b084dnqr is interesting for a discussion about this. Not sure if link will work shared from Sounds.