Do you have a poor sense of direction and get lost easily?

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I have a big problem with this. I live in a very low traffic gated community, so its pretty safe for me to walk around my neighborhood, but I'll get lost if I leave my block. And anywhere I'm taken like a store, I'll instantly get lost if I get separated. I always get really confused almost like stuff is spinning around and have a panic attack. I'm always scared I'll get lost and stranded whenever I'm taken anywhere.

I've always had a good sense of direction - as long as I'm on foot and outside.

As soon as I'm indoors (like a shopping mall) I find it much harder to orient myself, and figuring or remembering how to get somewhere requires a great deal of thought. More than once I've had to exit a building just to figure out where I was in relation to the structure, so that I could go back in and find my way.

If I get a ride with someone, or take a bus, to anyplace I've not been before, I will often feel very lost. Even with a map. I'd suggest that if you want to fight the fear of being lost, you should try and spot a BIG TALL something on the horizon that you can see from inside your community. And measure with your eyes how far (about) you think it is. And go to another spot in your community and look again. Get a good fix on the item (water tower, antenna, whatever it is).

Now plan to go outside your community and walk around the exterior. Before you go, make sure you know the street names, a phone number you can call if you get lost (someone who knows what you are doing and why), and then keep the "Tall Thing" in view as much as you can - and if you can't see it from everywhere, just keep a mental idea of where it SHOULD be as you move around.

Another thing that can help (in this marvellous age of technology) is if you PRETRACE your path with google maps, using the street view option. That way, you can see what buildings you are going to pass by as you make your tour. So you can say "ooh I found the mcdonalds, I'm on the right path."

I don't think I have it in that extreme fashion. I can still navigate through stores, even if I am in one for the first time as their structures are all pretty similar (certain super market chains share layouts for example).
Although if it is about anything bigger than a store, an "open" area, I first have to get to know my environment by recognizing "schemes" (certain buildings or details that stick out for example) and slowly creating a whole mental picture of it in my head, I pretty much rarely work with street names, especially since I live in an area where one can come across pretty long (and sometimes similar looking) streets - and a lot of them as well. It makes it not nearly as useful for me as focusing on outstanding architecture. This resulted in a funny situation once as I was in car with my brother and we both used a yellow building as orientation to navigate through an environment we have not been at for years - after what must have been an hour we realised they repainted the building after taking a closer look at a building with a certain architecture that seemed all too familiar.
I don't get panic attacks when getting lost, I usually know/remember where I came from, so I can just walk back to the point where I entered the "unknown area" and give it a new try if I have to get somewhere in that new area, slowly analysing and growing familiar with it.
Though I'm aware my orientation is not that good without the aforementioned "schemes", it can be good if I am put in an environment with less twisted paths or which is simpler than a big city. It's just that cities can be a confusing mess. So I think it really depends on the situation I'm put into and how exhausting the day was (which can influence my memory).

I'm a landmarks person too.
So often I've been asked by passers by "where's this street" and I have no idea.
I ask them what building they want, and POOF, I know exactly what to tell them.

Was a courier in London for near 10 years. I learnt to mentally memorize maps and routes and picked landmarks for more fine pointing.
Now I live in Belgium that don't work as the maps they have are utterly useless so I am using landmarks only now.
I can get hopelessly lost on motorway intersections. Spent 26km going in circles on the ringroad of Ghent once cause they were working on the sliproad to Ikea. Don't think I bothered in the end and just drove home.

I have a pretty limited sense of direction and am easily lost. When I have to get somewhere, I need to block thinking in words and sort of experience the world through feeling. I have to not even think words in my mind. And almost use my body to move where I need to. If I try to speak or listen to someone talking or figure out using words where to go, I will stay confused. If I ask directions, they will almost always confuse me, because they're usually words.

The anxiety comes from being lost in space, I think, but most people probably don't comprehend how that's possible, and assume you get lost because you panic. People who can find their way while talking and shift fluidly from finding their way to words about where to go all while having a conversation are fortunate, but maybe if you try not thinking in words when trying to find your way somewhere it will help you, too.

I have an excellent sense of direction, but I tend to lose it when I get sensory overloads.

No I do not. However I used to (and still do) keep public transit maps and general maps for my area in my bookbag (legacy from my mother's job which requires such I presume) and have google maps.

As I said on a different thread, I used to work for Domino's/Pizza Hut/Papa John's. I was always lost, ESPECIALLY when a new subdivision was just being completed, and there were no street signs and house numbers visible.

I can easily get lost in an area the first time I navigate through it. Afterwards I have no problems navigating and my mental map is excellent. I'll remember anything. I've been so good that when dropping people off after the first time months after the fact, they won't have to tell me where to go the second time.

I wonder if it's strictly my dyspraxia that causes it.

I get lost all the time, driving or walking. Even if I've been to a place many times before.
I spend a lot of time walking around getting un-lost.
I dread driving in cities, they are very confusing. I don't know how other people navigate those areas so easily. My favorite way of driving is in the passenger seat.

I have a poor sense of direction. I know how to get home in my neighborhood and I can navigate around the stores I go to a lot (although I still prefer not to separate from my family when we are there because I have a hard time finding people and will wonder around the store looking for ages only to eventually find them basically just where I left them). Beyond that, I'm not very good. I know how to get a few places around town but I can only name 3-4 streets in my entire town and I don't have any visualisations of how all the parts of my town connect. For example, I might have a good idea of what area A looks like and want to go to a shop there but if I'm in area B I don't know how to get to area A, if that makes sense. I have mini-maps of different parts of my town in my head but few connecting routes. I'm really lost when I go to new places and I always had a hard time learning my schedule in school, I would carry a map with me for close to half of the school year every year.

i have a fairly decent sense of direction.
It is better when I am in the city (melbourne) because of the grid design the city has, makes it easier to direct people.