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AIBU?

Literally no sense of direction... at all

182 replies

Pippa12 · 04/05/2021 15:15

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!

OP posts:
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Am I being unreasonable?

149 votes. Final results.

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You are being unreasonable
15%
You are NOT being unreasonable
85%
Scarby9 · 10/05/2021 19:18

@thelegohooverer
Do you remember that you have already been in eg. Waterstones? Does that not remind you if you do turn the wrong way?

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FrankensteinIsTheMonster · 10/05/2021 20:48

Me, a human being with no discernible navigation abilities at all, trying to get tips from someone with a fantastic sense of direction who has all these great techniques that just work when they do them, is a bit like me, a once-hyperlexic who thinks in text, trying to give tips to someone with severe dyslexia. It's just not gonna work Grin

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thelegohooverer · 11/05/2021 11:44

@Scarby9 that’s how I’d know I was going the wrong way. But that instinct to turn the wrong way is hard wired in!

A certain amount of it, for me, is not paying attention, and that’s the bit I can do something about. But being able to visualise images and carry a map in my head is well beyond me. The fact that in a 50:50 situation I’m not getting it right 50% of the time suggests that there’s some kind of instinct at play.

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NeverDropYourMoonCup · 11/05/2021 18:26

@FrankensteinIsTheMonster

Me, a human being with no discernible navigation abilities at all, trying to get tips from someone with a fantastic sense of direction who has all these great techniques that just work when they do them, is a bit like me, a once-hyperlexic who thinks in text, trying to give tips to someone with severe dyslexia. It's just not gonna work Grin

But it does confirm that you do absorb/disseminate information in a completely different way - which is what I wondered - and probably explains exactly why it's so difficult for some people to find their way around.

So it's not an absence of ability as much as it's a difference in processing information. Nobody needs to feel like they're a bit thick (I paraphrase slightly), nobody feels they're superior (I certainly don't when I'm faced with huge blocks of text and die a little inside because I've got to painstakingly go through it to extract the useful information from a wall of waffle, as I see it, when somebody else gets it immediately).

Your comments make it easier for somebody like me to give somebody like you directions that you will understand and be able to follow - I have to convert my super-duper 3D overlays into words. Very, very detailed words.

I think that's a pretty useful outcome from the thread, really?
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FrankensteinIsTheMonster · 11/05/2021 19:35

Agree completely MoonCup! It's been an interesting and useful thread.

I'm just trying to convey, somehow, what I'm in willing to bet a fair few people with difficulties like mine have experienced, which is people who are great at this stuff Just Not Getting that there's some kind of… fundamental difference that means that very often, the tips that work great for others don't seem to translate, and it's not for lack of trying Grin

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FrankensteinIsTheMonster · 11/05/2021 19:36

*what I'm in willing to bet

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jarviscockatiel · 11/05/2021 19:42

I'm hopeless too. I get lost in buildings so will avoid using toilets in big places such as airports in case I can't find DH again! Also weirdly I consider north to always be straight ahead no matter where I'm facing. Obviously I know it's not but I can't picture it being anywhere else!!!

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