Anyone else here got no sense of direction?

[Blessedbethefrootloops]

I suddenly realised today that I have absolutely no sense of direction. I always knew, but I don’t think I realised how bad it was.

Today dh and I had to take ds to an event. It’s at a venue we’ve been to several times before. We parked a 5 minute walk from the venue on the road. Dh went on ahead with ds as I waited in the car for 5 minutes to do my hair/make up.

When I got out of the car to walk to the venue I realised that I had no idea of the way. I set my phone up on Google maps and started walking but I was going in the completely wrong direction. I could hear noise coming from the venue and I got so confused. It was raining and I was carrying some equipment and I ended up just going back to the car and crying. Dh ended up coming back to
the car to meet me.

I can’t read Google maps when I’m walking. Sounds pathetic but I just can’t do it.

I go to a hairdressers every 6 months and have to park in an unfamiliar town (although I have been to
this town many times) so it shouldn’t really be unfamiliar. I get lost on the 3 minute walk from the car park to the hairdressers. Every single time. So I have to allow extra time.

It’s so embarrassing being an adult and wandering around lost.

I get lost in my office at work if I have to go to a different part of the building and I’ve worked there for years.

I get lost going to the toilet in places and can’t find my way back to where I was.

If I have to go anywhere I pray that there’ll be people I can follow. I do try to read maps but I get it wrong when it comes to putting it into reality.

I’ve been like this since school, I never learnt to find my way around school.

If I go somewhere every day then obviously eventually I learn the way. I don’t get lost going to work/school run/local shops. But I seems to take me a very long time to learn the way. For example there are shops near my ds school and I have to use the satnav even though I’ve been there loads of times.

This is exactly me. If I go to the toilet anywhere different I have to keep telling myself to turn left/ right when I come out! I am definitely geographically challenged.
I can drive to most new places but cannot for the life of me find my way back.
Glad it's not just me.

Yep this is me! I also have no coordination and very bad spatial awareness. I’m quite clumsy and terrible at sports 🤣

This is also me. Empathising with other geographically challenged people!

Same. I'm autistic. Also face blind so new jobs are fun!

I've always been like this, since long before GPS was invented, it isn't to do with paying attention. Nor can any route be stored an my long term memory, that's the root of the problem - those of us who struggle like this can't actually 'see' any routes in our brains. I can read a map, that's not the issue, for me that's an entirely different skill.

To add to the long list of difficulties:

Going to the loo on a train. I'd have no idea how to get back to my seat.

Moving around on a plane, again no idea how many rows I've walked. Thank god for a tall DH who's easy to spot.

Returning to a theatre/cinema seat - no hope!

Leaving the doctors, who else has ended up behind the desk in reception? Or behind the bar in a pub after going to the loo?

Going anywhere in the dark, even worse.

However hard I try, I don't think I can improve this, it's faulty brain wiring, and I'm sorry for anyone else who also struggles.

Sense of direction… I came on here hoping to glean some advice on whether to change careers or move house. 😂😂😂

I think it’s just an innate characteristic OP. My husband much to his dismay is terrible at reading maps. I can sit somewhere and point to the direction where a landmark is and he can’t. It was very
funny sitting on my parents verandah discussing in which direction the town centre was and he was completely wrong. It seems so obvious to me (and him even though he is completely off the mark).

In Afrikaans (South Africa) we say ‘Rigting Befok’… ChatGPT will explain.

Me too OP. I’m constantly getting lost
unless a particular route is very familiar. I use google maps by asking for walking directions and making sure the blue dot that is me is moving in the right direction. just glancing at the map is no use.

Always memorising or writing down your seat number helps a lot.

I’m absolutely dreadful too. It’s a standing joke in the family that if I sense we need to go left, it’s certain to be a right. 😞

Same! 😭

Re sat navs- here's a warning tale.
My dh had to go to hospital for a minor ish op, so he drove there and set up the sat nav for me to get home. First roundabout- take the 4th exit (5 exit roundabout, this info is important) Second roundabout- take the 3rd exit. Next roundabout- take the 4th exit. Next roundabout- take the 3rd exit. Next roundabout- take the 4th exit. (By now I was thinking it was unusual to have three 5 exit roundabouts in a row. It had taken me 3 times going up and down that bit of road to realise that I had been stuckon a loop of the same roundabouts, and if the roundabouts hadn't been unusual in having 5 exits I'd still be there now!

Lost a bit of faith in the sat nav after that, suffice to say I got lost (several times) and when I got to a ford in Bath where you have to pay to go over it, I threw a pound at the people, gibbering keep the change, just tell me where the hell I am and how do I get home?
I got home, eventually, and by then my dh had had his op and got the ward sister to ring me to check I'd actually got home OK as I'd not messaged dh. I'd only just walked in when she rang!
Someone else picked him up from hospital.

I'm shockingly bad. When walking, using Google map, I will ALWAYS go the wrong way... then, it will take me atleast 10 minutes before I realise I am in fact going the wrong direction! A navigator I am not.

I'm terrible. Like my house growing up was end of terrace and even now as an adult in my 40's I get confused in the attic as to which side the neighbour is on. I was horribly late to a work meeting once because I walked the wrong way from the train station for a good 20 minutes, it wasn't the first - or last - time it had happened and it wasn't the first time I'd been to that venue. I can't read maps because I can't cope if we're not going up the map.

GPS and the Maps app on my phone has made a huge difference to my ability to get somewhere.

Mine is absolutely woeful 😂 dyspraxia and AUHD, such a joy.

Me too. I also have no minds eye, like it’s just black when I shut my eyes and try to see things so I think it’s something to do with that for me.

I’m with you OP. I don’t know my left from my right either. 😂💪

I’m the worst person I know with directions. I never remember the way I came. I get lost all the time, even in places I’ve been to before multiple times. I usually remember eventually when I’ve done it over and over again but I’m so bad at directions that people often take the piss out of me. I always turn the wrong way when coming out of a room and trying to find the exit if I go for an appointment etc 😂. If I go to the toilet somewhere I’ll never remember the way back!

Terrible. Running joke in my family. I can’t connect roads together so I’m either lost or two seconds later I know exactly where I am.

dread doing dog walks on my own in the woods. A one way there one way back path I’m fine

terrible with my left and right

and I can’t pictures room if someone describes it to me or shows me a 2D blueprint / architecture plan.