To think you either have a sense of direction or don't?

[BeatleBattleInABottle]

My sense of direction has always been awful. I just can't "see" in my head how to get from place a to place b even in places I know. We regularly make a specific short journey in a place I've lived for 20 years. It's a bit twisty turny and I still have to think about how to get between the 2 places every time. There were diversions last time and I found it really hard to envisage a new route and it ended up taking twice as long as it should have done.

I also get disorientated very easily in places I don't know eg I can't tell whether we need to walk up the street or down.

It's one of the reasons I don't drive tbh. I can barely walk places, I'd be a menace in a car trying to figure out lanes etc at the same time.

It doesn't stop me going new places but I do get worried about getting lost. I'm going away this weekend with my youngest son to somewhere new and I'm really anxious. I'll still do it.

My husband and oldest son can go somewhere new and within half a day are acclimatised and just seem to know where to go. Like geese or something. They don't understand how I'm so rubbish at it.

Totally agree. I have no sense of direction and it takes me far longer to memorise routes for driving than it does others.

If I come out of a shop I have to look at landmarks to work out which way I came from and need to turn.

I was once standing in my living room and for some reason needed to know if the door to my flat faced the same way as the front door to the block. DH just "knew". I had to stand there and actually walk around making the turns I would to go down the stairs around the corner etc to work it out.

DB and I were once at a tube station in a part of London we had never been to before. One of the not actually underground ones. I was looking around for the lights to work out which direction the train would come from. DB laughed because again he just "knew" based on the direction we'd entered the station and turned since then etc. Witchcraft to me.

I agree with this. My dh has no internal compass and doesn't seem to picture where he is on a map. We can drive to to the coast and he will say is that France when we are looking north towards Wales. He can happily follow a road map but won't have imagined which bits of the country he's passed through on the journey. I love maps so I like to look at them and visualise the landscape before I go anywhere.

I'm the same, OP. My brain just doesn't function in the same way as the brains of people who are good at directions. I do drive though. I use a satnav.

Google Maps is your friend!

@Swiftie1878 I disagree. I find Google maps a pain for trying to find my way around streets on foot and judging by the number of videos on line showing people trying to find their way around using it, and changing direction from one second to the next, I don't think I'm alone in that!

I struggle hugely with this, especially inside buildings - I often walk the wrong way in the office at work for example. I have to be really clear with people that I CANNOT give them directions if they are driving me home or driving to my house.

I also have some coordination issues and terrible handwriting, so in my case I’m pretty sure it’s undiagnosed dyspraxia behind all this.

Really!? I think it’s a godsend and incredibly accurate!

I have a ridiculously spot on sense of direction.

Always have. Think it's something I got from my dad.

However for some reason other people will insist on ignoring me and going wrong before they take my word for it. Even though they know I'm always right!

I just smile and nod and let them crack on!

All of my DHs family have a terrible sense of direction. They all also think in words rather than pictures and I wonder if the two are related.

Mine comes and goes. Sometimes I just know we are heading in the wrong direction. Other times I feel like crying as I'm so lost 😆 I actually spent two hours once trying to head north out of London in my car. I gave up and called my dad. I grew up in London but apart from being able to navigate the Underground, I'm pretty much useless trying to walk or drive anywhere.

I was once on the ring road of a major city (pre sat nav) and (correctly) chose an exit based on the fact that the sun was setting in that direction and I knew I needed to go West 😂

My grandad was notorious for getting lost in a town he’d been visiting since he was a small child and I think I’ve inherited that sense of direction and so has DD1.

Apparently 10% of the population doesn’t automatically know their left from right (I’m one of them!) and I’m sure it doesn’t help with navigation. I don’t think that’s surprising really, how many people automatically know North and South? Left and right are kind of the same thing.

I don't drive, but have a good sense of direction on foot, and am good at map reading etc. BUT what I absolutely don't have is an ability to easily distinguish left and right. The words are completely arbitrary to me.

Yeah I’m surprised by this too. I have a terrible sense of direction, but I have google maps running as sat nav for every journey I drive and if I’m walking somewhere new. There are times when I need to set off and see if my blue blob is moving the right way and to turn around if it’s not - but I never struggle to navigate by following it, and it’s never taken me to the wrong place - and I’ve relied on it in many countries and in many towns and cities.

Mine is rubbish. My kids play team sports and I drive them to away matches and I honestly don't know how I'd have managed before satnav. DH's is excellent - if he's driven somewhere before he'll remember the route, even if he's only been there once and it was a couple of years ago!

Agree completely. It drives DH nuts. He can orient himself in a new place so easily. I can’t do it where I’ve lived for 20 years!

100% also if I’m chatting to someone about a place, I’ll likely point as if I can see it in front of me. My dh and friend both can instantly say ‘you mean over to the west?’ And know in a second that the place is to the west of where we are in that moment in time? Baffles me.

Nope. I have a hopeless sense of direction.
I worked in a different town for a month once. It had a high street that went right through from one end to the other. At the end of the four weeks i went shopping and walked the length, but somehow ended up at the other end from where I thought I was!

I have no problem with directions, right and left etc. I do have a friend who absolutely cannot work out how to get to or from places unless she has been there. She once drove from Dunblane to Falkirk via Glasgow airport. She couldn't work out which exit would take her off the motorway and ended up on the motorway to the airport. She knew how to get home from there 😂

I can't do visual imagery either, and I think this made it harder for me to learn to drive. I would look at the sign for the roundabout with the diagram and lanes, and by the time I got to it, I'd forgotten what the picture was and didn't know what to do. I also had many hours of driving lessons around the town where the test would be, and forgot where I was every single time (driving instructor told me to get a satnav as soon as I passed).

Like a PP, I find google maps a bit tricky on foot, but mainly just at first while you work out which way you're pointing. In the car it is absolutely fine though - and once I'd passed my test I had no problem using it. It will show you really clearly what lane you need to be in and what's coming up. So please don't let that put you off.

The other thing that helped was living by the sea - handy to cut out one whole direction so you only have to remember the other three!

I have never had this inbuilt direction finder but my Ds and Dd both do and it’s amazing to see.
I went to Florida with my Dd and Dgc, I was the driver and she directed, most of the time I had no idea which way to go but she just knew.
Was with my Ds in the centre of Fuengirola once and I wanted to eat near the sea, so he just starts walking, I was saying we’d better ask someone and he’s saying it’s ok, it’s this way. I asked him how he knew, he said, I can just feel it’s this way and was a bit surprised I couldn’t…

I agree - I think it's innate in some people. I am one of those people. I just "know" how to get to places. I'm married to a lovely man who does not have this sense, so we make a good team - his "short cut" fails are the stuff of family legend 😆

All of these things especially coming out of a shop! it drives my husband mad!

even inside a building I just can’t remember. Eg I worked in a building for years and went up half a flight of stairs to use the toilet and half a flight back down. When the toilet was out of order and I had to go 1.5 flights up, I’d still go 0.5 down and wonder into a totally different office without realising!

Yes I am terrible at this and can go wrong following regular routes all the time and often forget how to get back to the car when out. Apparently it has a name: developmental topographical disorientation.

I could get lost in my own house 🤣. I hate having to find places. I have perfect pitch though! I clearly didn't inherit practical skills really.

I’m the same. For me it’s part of my dyspraxia. I have no spacial awareness so never no which way to go and also could never get the hang of driving. It seems to be genetic in my family as my grandmother is the same way as are 2 of her children, although they’re not as bad as me because they can drive. Google maps has really helped me. It is sometimes a bit difficult to follow but it allows me to go to new places on my own and figure out where to go. Before I had access to google maps I was constantly getting lost and hated going anywhere on my own.