Why do I fail at sense of direction?

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It's SO frustrating. I'm worried to go out on new routes, because I had this dreadful sense of direction. I almost ALWAYS get lost, unless I've used the route a lot. It's super illogical and stuff. Like today, I got so lost, I was doing circles. My friend told me the directions several times, and I still got lost. Although I usually eventually find it. I always end up taking a long loopety-loop route.
I'm going to need a GPS with me at all times when I drive.
It's odd because I'm supposed to have good spatial and performance IQ... Doesn't feel like it sometimes.

Impaired Executive Function. Its all in the neurology.


Like the new avatar pic, BTW.

I have the same problem. I hate trying to drive to places that I've never been before. , Even with directions, I almost always find myself lost. It's very frustrating and can sometimes be scary for me, if I don't know how to get home afterwards.

Whenever possible, I try to have my mom with me when I need to go someplace new for the first time.

That is how my husband is, and I don't understand it.

I have an inherent sense of direction, and I always seem to have a beacon that draws me toward my destination. I've always been this way, able to roam looooong ways even as a child and young teenager, and always have a sense of where I was and where I needed to be. My husband doesn't get how I am the way I am, lol.

I'm like that, too. My horrible sense of direction is actually sort of infamous. For work, I have to make home visits to clients and have a GPS the company bought me, but have still managed to get lost even with the GPS. (Don't ask me how). I was diagnosed with NVLD a few years ago and the specialist who did the testing said that was probably a big contributing factor to my direction problems.

Thank you!

Is this an indication of AS? I don't know if I have it or not...



I hope I marry someone with that amazing sense of direction.

I too plan on having people come with me on my first drive to college. I really need them to guide me as I drive. I've found just showing me isn't always enough.

On the contrary, I have a fantastic sense of direction; I wonder what the ratio of people with a good to bad sense is across the spectrum?

I am bad at knowing where to go when people tell me. I need stuff written down like street names or freeway exits. I use google maps and write the directions down when I need to go somewhere. If I am just out exploring, I have carried a map with me and would pull over and look and decide what streets to take.

But I am good with directions luckily. My husband is bad at it but I am great with it. He uses a GPS on his tablet so he doesn't get lost. What's great about it is he can type in any address he wants to go to and it will tell him how to get there from where he is standing. Even if he gets lost, he can retype it in and it gives him the new route from where he is. But what's great about it is there is the blue line for the route you are taking and the arrow for where you are and you have to follow the blue line. If you go off it, you have taken the wrong turn.


But before google maps, I had no idea how to get to new places. But now I do. I would have had to buy different maps for each area and look at the route and find the street name and figure out the route and the exact location on the street. I have no idea how people did it then. Perhaps calling ahead of time or going around asking people for directions.

I have one in my car. What a great invention! Just as calculators made my dyscalcula not be an impairment anymore, GPS made my no-sense-of-direction not be an impairment anymore. I think that if an imp[airment can be nullified with technology then go for it! The iphone also has a GPS app. It's so great! You hold the iphone out in front of you and there is a map with an arrow telling you which way to walk next. Except I almost walked into a pole.

I have an excellent sense of direction

Its something you learn

As a surfer, we are always gauging the wind direction, swell direction, and beach direction

As such I'm aware of which way I travel, and where the sun crosses the sky

Animals have navigated back to home, even more than hundreds of miles they can find home

Sounds like me!

I have an innate sense of direction. It's far from perfect though, and is only good for approximations. My memory for where things are located though is nearly perfect. In my mind I can generate a very accurate map of all the places I've gone.

Well, you are lucky!
I seem to be visual, yet my extremely poor short-term memory butchers everything I could do with it!

Spatial vision. Men get it from hunting ancestors needing to kill beasts. Makes them better at catching balls and motor racing too

The man/women aspect is relevant too when you consider for millennia men were required to know where they were going, and women traditionally stayed near home for security

Sorta, actually, I have a really bad sense of direction.

I've been lost twice on my bike within the span of a few miles because I kinda let my mind wander when I am biking and don't pay attention to street signs.

Do you go by streets or landmarks? I know that gets me into trouble sometimes....

I'd say having no instinctual sense of direction without landmarks, maps, a compass, or signs isn't specifically an AS thing. Even routes I'm familiar with can appear alien depending on the time I'm driving them (things look different at night). Keep a compass mounted in your car (if you don't have one wired in) and GPS systems are pretty cheap if you need one (most smart phones have some form of GPS)

Google maps helps a lot. I print out the big map along with the turn-by-turn instructions. I look for the simplest routes with the least amount of turns and highway changes, and once I print out my map, I mark off exit numbers to be aware of, and I look at the estimated time/distance for the long routes so I know when to expect the exits. Until a drive becomes routine, I can expect a decent probability of getting lost. At least with some prep work, I'm not "white knuckling" it all the way to my destination.

With verbal directions, I get frustrated when people want to give me "shortcuts". If a shortcut will knock 20 minutes off my drive time, I'll consider it. If it only cuts my travel time by 5 or 10 minutes I'd rather take the longer, but simpler, route.