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!

[Mycatismadeofstringcheese]

Yes me. I tell my daughter I’ve got Waze on to check for traffic jams ahead, but it’s really because otherwise I’d get lost driving her couple of miles down the road. (On the journey we do weekly)

Also crap with faces. It’s amazing I ever manage to get anything done!

[the80sweregreat]

I couldn't do anything with a compass or navigation by the sky or the stars! (Good job
The SAS turned me down eh ? )😀😅

[Recorditnow]

Me too. Hopelessly directionally challenged - my husband is the polar opposite, can go somewhere once and remember and can take a random turn and know exactly where he is going to come out.

Me, if I can visualise the start of a journey, I can't see the middle.

I'm quite bad with faces too, it takes me a while before they click.

I really wish it was the other way and it came naturally. Life would be much easier.

[the80sweregreat]

I used to think it was only me that had all these difficulties and problems so it's nice to know that that it's not.
Trouble is, my own dh is brilliant at navigating and driving and rarely loses things and doesn't worry about driving anywhere new or whatever.
My own lack of all these skills has stopped me doing so much I think , it's the fear of it all going wrong.

[sashh]

Are any of you called Karen Powell?

[TellingBone]

Just to add to my earlier posts - I have no problem knowing left/right or with the points of the compass. I'm just disoriented in places where I can't get my bearings.

A random memory has just returned to me. I remember as a child on a seaside holiday knowing, without being told, that if I went down to the sea I'd not be able to find my parents among the massed deck chairs when I went back. So I would stand in front of them and look over their heads and align with a building on the prom. I have a photo of me on that beach together with my landmark in the distance - an amusement arcade with a huge neon clown face above it. I was 3 years old! Rationally, now, I'm sure my parents were keeping their eyes on me anyway but how odd that even at that age I was aware of this 'danger'.

[LovingBob]

I am and am getting worse, I don't think it helps that DH is very good at navigating so I just follow him, I can never find my way round places and have got lost at work on several occasions when starting a new job and it takes me ages to learn where everywhere is. I have a bright yellow car so I don't lose it, my last one was bright green, easy to spot from a distance.

[isthismylifenow]

I was lucky to escape a very bad accident a few years ago. Ahead of me was a 5 car pile up and I had to call the ambulance as was first uninjured on scene. So I was already panicked when I called and the operator asked me where I was. I was on a motorway, so said I'm on x road, so she asked which exit did a pass last. I didn't know. And then she asked me was I traveling east or west. I didn't know that either. By this time I was getting myself in quite a state as can see all the goings on but just couldn't tell her exactly where we were. There were no landmarks to say oh this is front of me. In the end I said I'm traveling from x place to y place and I've been driving for 20 mins so that's where I am. But it was really awful and if I could have just said what the previous off ramp was I'm sure they would have been able to dispatch help quicker. It still bothers me to this day.

[NotOnMute]

@isthismylifenow

I was lucky to escape a very bad accident a few years ago. Ahead of me was a 5 car pile up and I had to call the ambulance as was first uninjured on scene. So I was already panicked when I called and the operator asked me where I was. I was on a motorway, so said I'm on x road, so she asked which exit did a pass last. I didn't know. And then she asked me was I traveling east or west. I didn't know that either. By this time I was getting myself in quite a state as can see all the goings on but just couldn't tell her exactly where we were. There were no landmarks to say oh this is front of me. In the end I said I'm traveling from x place to y place and I've been driving for 20 mins so that's where I am. But it was really awful and if I could have just said what the previous off ramp was I'm sure they would have been able to dispatch help quicker. It still bothers me to this day.

Oh, poor you, that sounds like a really scary experience.

I’ve worried about this sort of situation. I’ve now got the what three words app on my phone, so if I ever do need to say where I am urgently, as long as I’ve got phone signal I will be able to do so.

[MamaWeasel]

I relied on the children to get us home if we deviated from one of my few 'known' routes. They, luckily, take after their father in that respect.

Dh tries to teach me to landmark but it just doesn't seem to translate into something I can apply elsewhere.

I cannot go out on my own, have not been out on my own for years.....I do have severe mental health issues and also Aspergers. We moved house two years ago.....I have no idea where I am half the time.

[Lilyx18]

Following as can 100% relate to this!!

[Theluggage15]

I’m also terrible with faces, interesting to see that others say the same. I have bad spatial awareness and am also terrible at any type of ball games. Not sure if that’s all linked in any way

[PerspicaciousGreen]

I experience all journeys as if they were one of those medieval linear maps, where it's basically a series of pictures of the scenery in a long horizontal line on a scroll. I am able to memorise getting from point A to point B via a particular route after a few tries, because I just walk along the path. But what I am left with is a series of unconnected ways to get from one point to another point, none of which join up. So I may know how to get from Point A to Point B, and also separately from B to C, but the only way for me to get from A to C is to go via B - even if it's a big triangle and C is basically next door to A. Since I've realised how I experience it subjectively, I've been making more of an effort to note things that stand out to me personally and use them as placemarkers on routes. Or like examples upthread of getting lost on the way back from restaurant toilets, mentally giving myself verbal directions back on my way there.

DH sometimes amuses himself by asking me "Which direction is our house from here, then?" and getting me to point. My first instinct is always to just point back along the road we've been walking along, as that's the way I'd go to get there!

When I am given directions, I memorise the words like it's a list and follow them. Apparently some people visualise it in their head like it's a map. Go to the end of the road, go left, then go right at the tree, etc. No, it's a list of verbal instructions for me. If anything has changed like a road closure, it's an enormous effort to figure out a viable alternative - which I often get wrong! Thankfully I don't drive so this is all done at walking pace so I can either as much as I need to, or get my phone out!

I am also bad at recognising faces, but have an uncanny memory for clothes and accessories!

[PerspicaciousGreen]

Forgot to say, I can actually read and operate maps at an average/acceptable level. But no map-type information ever makes it into my memory, and its very much a manual process of keeping my finger on the map and checking road names - not glancing at a map and then tossing it aside and just going.

[LotLessBovver]

I have absolutely no sense of direction.

To add to the 'fun' I also seem to be something of a magnet for people who want to ask for directions. On holidays my DC have started timing how long it takes for someone to come over and ask me how to get somewhere. My current record is just under 2.5 minutes. DH remembers everywhere he's ever been but rarely gets stopped by anyone in need of help.

I am also terrible at recognising and remembering faces. I try to remember people by their hair or any particularly distinguishing features. The rest is just a blur.

[randomsabreuse]

The thing that really improved my ability to create a "network" of linked routes in my area was starting running with my local running club. Going slower than driving plus regular repetition really helped my visual memory of routes (but yep totally get that landmarks only work from the "right" direction).

I've since moved and can mostly go in the right general direction on foot on a clear day because in 1 direction you can see a long line of hills which is North. In the other direction you have Glasgow tower blocks which is South. So I'm pretty well covered, except minor details like canals and rivers requiring bridges to cross them...

[the80sweregreat]

I'm sure I have dyspraxia and had to learn coping mechanisms over the years to overcome so much but I still have the fear of things going wrong and hate driving out of my 'comfort zones' too. It does hold you back in life I think.
Plus other people can make you feel inadequate if you admit to any of these failings. I also hate the fact I'm so useless with numbers and maths. I'm sure I'm ' wired differently' to other people !

[ShakeaHettyFeather]

It can't be that linked to prosopagnosia - I have a brilliant sense of direction and will be happily directing people within 24 hours of landing in a new city, but I really can't do faces beyond the obvious details. So I will go off to the loos in a hotel and find my way back to the dining room and my table just fine, but will have no clue whether the people at my conference table are the same ones who were there ten minutes earlier - I've had many a conversation where I just assumed the person on the left of my chair was the same as before...

It's something about recognising 2D pictures, for me - I can be asleep in the car and then DH wakes me up and wails "where are we?" and if it's anywhere I've been in the last 30 years in England I'll tell him. I'm often bending down in places and confirming yes, I was there as a child.

I have a couple friends who can't follow the two-road 5-min walk from the station to my house, however many directions I give. One can usually be talked in but the other... it's just quicker to go get her. Intelligent woman in most other ways, but I keep wanting to say "you see, but you do not observe"!

[BrumBoo]

I'm exactly the same. I have a few routes memorised to perfection but all within a 2 mile radius. Everything else goes to shit without a satnav or someone giving directions. I thank whatever god is out there that my driving test had a sat nav aspect rather than 'follow road directions for the next 20 minutes'.

I also have difficulty with left and right, have no physical recognition (places or faces), and have issues with spacial awareness. Terrible at maths as well if it's in any way related! One of my siblings has dyspraxia, very possible I have the same.

[Curlygirl06]

All of the above! My daughter can go somewhere once and she's fine, can go back any time. She has only got seriously lost once and was in a state of panic as it had never happened before. It was then she realized what it is like in my world and she is a bit more sympathetic now.
My absolute best (?) example of getting lost involved using a sat nav. I'd dropped dh at hospital and had to drive home. I'd spent the whole journey looking at landmarks, noting where things were etc and thought I'd be ok. Dh set the sat nav up for me and off I went. First roundabout, take the 5th exit. Ok, off to next roundabout, take the 2nd exit. Next roundabout, take 5th exit, next roundabout 2nd exit. Next roundabout, take 5th exit again, by now I was thinking it was strange to have 3 roundabouts in a row where I had to take the 5th exit each time. Next roundabout take the 2nd exit. It was only when I went back down the road FOR THE FOURTH TIME and again was told to take the 5th exit I realized something was not right. If it hadn't been for the fact of the unusual 5th exit issue, I'd have been up and down that bloody road a few times more before I realized that the sat nav had frozen.
I had to drive to a side road and re set the sat nav but I was in such a state. I misread the screen thing at a later date, ended up in some bloody village with single track roads and no bugger to ask (bit Children of the Corn area!)
I ended up by a toll bridge over a river, was so stressed by then I have them a pound, told them to keep the change as long as they could tell me how the hell I could get back on the road home.
I got someone else to collect dh from the hospital, couldn't do that again.

[the80sweregreat]

Only way I can tell left from right is that my wedding ring is on my left hand!
If I wasn't married ...
still , at least I can drive. I know many that can't , so that keeps me going ( even if I don't drive that far unless I really have to)
(I just wish I was better at directions and not getting lost all the time! )

[FlyNow]

Yes I do all these things, even down to getting turned around coming out of shops and looking at my wedding ring to check left vs right.

As for how did I get around without sat nav, I didn't really. There was so much stress and tears. Luckily I was about 20 years old when car sat navs were becoming popular and affordable.

Did anyone see that The Good Place episode where one character gets lost on an escalator and is diagnosed with "directional insanity". The perfect name for it!

[the80sweregreat]

Only place I've been 'lost' on an escalator was in Harrods where they are there to confuse. ( only been in that shop once, enough for me!)
Mind you , it is a big old ' shop'!

[JudgeJ]

My late OH once took someone to Picadilly station in Manchester from Bolton, he returned via Manchester AIrport as he couldn't work out how to get back any other way.

[bumblingbovine49]

I have been like to his all my life and I am 56. I had to rely on maps for driving in my youth and sat navs have been a life saver as I regularly used to have to stop to check the map and even used to try and look at them while driving . I can drive a route 50 times and still not remember or be able to describe the route .

I remember relying on the far superior directional skills of my 8 year old nephew once in a large park when I couldn't find the car park after a long walk.