Is knowing which way is left or right as automatic as up and down?

[Dramatic]

Saw a video online about this, apparently for some people knowing their left and right is as automatic as knowing up and down. Is this you?

I struggle so much, I can be confidently saying left and pointing right or vice versa and when someone gives a direction it takes me a good few seconds to know which way they mean. Whereas if someone said up or down it would be instant.

YABU left and right are as easy as up & down
YANBU left and right takes a few more seconds to think about/I quite often get it wrong

@LauderSyme no even with a sat nav I can get lost.

Nope I am the same, if I am driving I find it very difficult, DP & DS don't understand how I need to think about it rather than just know like they do!

It's instinctive to me. What I find weird is that North and South are as well to me but East and West aren't. So if someone who didn't know asked me what part of England Harrogate and Horsham are in I'd know North and South right away. But if you asked me where Norwich is I'd have to go through the mental process of "OK, Norwich, that's Norfolk which is the bit on the right side as you look at the map so not Cornwall side, OK that's East then"

Oh god this

The M25 is blocked from junction 5 clockwise - what WHAT?

The junction on the eastbound M2 is blocked - what, WHAT?

I know it instinctively but I'm sure I had to learn it as a child iyswim.

My daughter (14) really struggles. She's dyslexic and I wonder if it's related.

I’m the same with east and west too! North and South is dead easy.

and I’m really good with map reading, directions etc, it’s just I have to think more consciously about east and west

I'm dyspraxic so struggle with trying laces properly (have my own method), can't ride a bike, drive automatic, trip over my own feet a lot.
However I didn't realise that left and right aren't automatic for so many people, I have a really good innate sense of direction and can go somewhere once and easily give it again, find my way back, find my way in the right direction of something if a road is closed etc which DH cannot do at all

For me, it's completely intuitive. One of my dc knew his left from.his right before he was two so I think it is almost inbuilt for some people.

But I get muddled up between east and west. I have to stop and visualise a map of Great Britain. I live on the east coast so you'd think I'd know, but if someone asks me if, for example, Kettering is east or west of Cambridge I have to visualise it.

It's definitely not me, I'm terrible with left and right and not sure if its due to being ambidextrous. I need to straighten my hand with thumb out to see which one makes an L for left and wrote L and R on my hand for driving test.

I know left and right but what catches me everytime is gross and net
I can never remember which one is which and end up goggling it 😅

I just said the same about 5 posts before you! I also live in the East, on the Kent coast and I still don't know instinctively if Devon is East or West, have to visualise the map and compass points on it. But North/South is instant.

I know my left and my right hand.

I really need to think about which foot is left or right.
I must have two left feet

I've never known which is left or right.

Well people dont always say things are the way I see it and it confuses me

So the M2 for example, is described as east or west bound. But to me its north or south, because London is north of the coast (albeit slightly over to the.... erm west, I think thats right)

I get it if they say Londonbound or coastbound, but they insist on calling it east or west,

Not a clue

No left and right are much harder.

We are taught up and down from tiny kids and carry on using them throughout life.

We only use left and right when talking about directions.

Left and right can also change depending on what way you’re facing
(if someone says the shop is on the left then it would depend on which way you are travelling, or if someone says you have a mark on the left side of your face is that their left or your left).
It can be confusing.

But up is always up and down is always down.

I broke my ankle very badly ten years ago.

It was in plaster for six months.

It really fucked up my brain pathways relating to the foot - so my sense of touch was weird for a while and I still don't have full motor control.

I also lost the ability to tell the difference between left and right feet generally and also for my feet. Even now when something touches my good foot (right) I can't be totally sure which foot is being touched.

I spent about a year doing an app every day designed to help you recover the ability to tell the difference between left and right and help map that into your body.

www.noigroup.com/product/recogniseapp/

Not for me. Up down is usually easy* - if standing or sitting, ones your head, ones your feet. But left and right, I have two arms, doesn't help distinguish which is which. I also struggle with east and west, despite using them most days with my work.

• I say usually, because I have a balance problem and sometimes if I'm dizzy and lying down in the dark I can struggle with up versus down too!

Easy as up and down for me, had no idea it wasn't automatic for so many people. Still can't get my head around nearside and offside though, or inside lane and outside lane.

It feels as intuitive to me as up and down, but my husband really struggles with it. He can't reliably give directions as left/right are only correct fifty percent of the time.

I have no sense of direction. I do know which is right and which is left but I have to think about it. I certainly don’t know north south etc.

This is very interesting because although I dont know my left and right or east and west that easily, like you, I can go somewhere once and know exactly how to get back and travel there again, no map, no sat nav

OH on the other hand, always, ALWAYS goes the wrong way out of a car park, cant remember how we got in, doesnt know how to get out, doesnt know which way we were coming from....the time we have spent driving round the car park because he goes the wrong way while IN the car park. I cant tell you

Inside & outside lane is so confusing as the inside lane is on the outside of the road and the outside lane is in the middle of the road!

Yes this. I regularly watch police bodycam footage from the USA on Youtube (!) and both police and citizens confidently speak of e.g. "travelling North on I95..."

I have no earthly idea how they know the direction, unless it is culturally related to their system of street blocks.

I always have to rotate a map when I view it so that it shows the same spatial direction I am going in, otherwise I can't make head nor tail of it.

My wedding ring does an awful lot of heavy lifting.

Doing the L thing with my thumb doesn't really help because I can convince myself that my right hand looks like an L. An L looking out.

A friend - who is very intelligent - still has an analog watch so he knows which way clockwise goes.

First time I realised (I nearly said clocked it 😀) we were cycling and he was removing a wheel to fix a puncture. I noticed he kept looking at his watch, I assured him we had all day, which was when he explained he need it to remind him how to undo nuts and bolts.

(I didn't have the heart to mention left hand threads .... )