Weird Disorientation when I was Younger

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MirrorWars
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13 Jul 2012, 9:04 am

When I was younger this used to happen too often.

If I were to return home or to school from a different direction from the one which I had used to leave, I would be disorientated and I could no longer find my classroom or house.

This could last from a few hours to a few days. It was a miserable experience that would consume me until I would eventually "click" back to normal.

I eventually managed to develop a technique to get myself back to my familiar place by burying my face into a pillow and leaving it there until I had managed to visualise my familiar surroundings. It worked too.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this?



CWA
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13 Jul 2012, 10:03 am

Undxed.

Yes. All the time. I get very disoriented sometimes. I must use "landmarks" to find things, even rooms. I'm ok in places like a house. But in places where there are lots of rooms... I get lost. I can get lost in the mall. I have to use the play area in the middle, the croc stand, and JCP as landmarks otherwise I get turned around.

The worst for me is driving. I cannot find my way around, I almost always use my GPS. The only places I can get to with out it are routes I travel everyday Or places that are very close and require less than two turns and have lots of landmarks at that turn. I can get to work from my house, to daycare from work and from daycare to my house. I can get to target because it is right next to daycare. I can get to mcdonalds (and the surrounding stores) because it is less than two turns away. But places like... the mall I need my gps or someone to give me turn by turn instructions even though I have dirven there 100s of times. Same with other shopping areas, going to visit my dad, the zoo, my doctor I just can't find them. Also I often get disoriented while enroute. I look around and I have no idea where I am or what turn is next until I see one of my landmarks. I silently freak out until I get to one. I hate it.



slave
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13 Jul 2012, 10:15 am

MirrorWars wrote:
When I was younger this used to happen too often.

If I were to return home or to school from a different direction from the one which I had used to leave, I would be disorientated and I could no longer find my classroom or house.

This could last from a few hours to a few days. It was a miserable experience that would consume me until I would eventually "click" back to normal.

I eventually managed to develop a technique to get myself back to my familiar place by burying my face into a pillow and leaving it there until I had managed to visualise my familiar surroundings. It worked too.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this?


Hmmmm.....I wonder if you have a deficit in what we call topographical orientation.



MirrorWars
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13 Jul 2012, 11:32 am

Thanks for the replies.

I should have mentioned that it was kind of like somebody has picked-up my neighbourhood and spun it around, so that everywhere is now facing another way.

Or maybe it was like a mirror image of my local area. I knew exactly where I was, but it suddenly looked strangely-unfamiliar.

It is very difficult to explain, but it hardly ever happens to me as an adult. Thankfully.



Ann2011
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13 Jul 2012, 11:38 am

I had this quite a bit when I was a kid. I used a similar technique to regain my bearings. I would close my eyes and try and visualize what things looked like normally until things clicked back. It's a disconcerting experience.



CyborgUprising
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13 Jul 2012, 12:11 pm

I hate when people use street names without giving secondary discriptions (landmarks that are highly unlikely to be altered). It makes me wonder if they realize just how many 2nd Avenues and Main Streets there really are...



MirrorWars
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13 Jul 2012, 2:22 pm

Ann2011 wrote:
I had this quite a bit when I was a kid. I used a similar technique to regain my bearings. I would close my eyes and try and visualize what things looked like normally until things clicked back. It's a disconcerting experience.


Very interesting. I had always wondered if it was just me, clearly not.

I wonder if is specifically to to with people on the spectrum, or something that could happen to NT's too?

I'm glad that I bothered to make the thread now. I half expected nobody else to have any idea what I was on about, to be honest.