Different routes-anyone ?

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I have a poor sense of direction(more nvld than asd I believe) . My route to go out is via a car park that is currently being resurfaced. My stepdaughter has shown me an alternative route out but I am anxious about using it. Can anyone understand this ?

I have problems with getting directions & routes confused aLOT too but I think my problem is due to my dyslexia & my ADHD. I'm in my head too much to pay much attention & I get things like left & right confused easily. I wish you luck adjusting to the new route.

Yeah, pre-established routes are the least stressful. Don't the majority of people (AS or not) take the same route every day to work, school, shops, etc. to avoid unknowns?

^ Very much so for me. I get annoyed when the suggestion is made that my "repetitive behaviour" is a form of obsessiveness. It isn't, it's the exact opposite, an "autopilot" that allows me to get things done without overloading my brain with decisions to made that can end up trapping me in a cycle of rumination and procrastination. If I take a familiar route then, no matter what else might be distracting my mind, my legs can get me where I'm going with barely any conscious intervention, nor do I even remember the anything of the journey. Long before I knew I was autistic, I used to joke with people that I had "clockwork legs" because of this behaviour.

Definitely. I adhere to familiar routes because I fear getting lost.

Before I can learn a route, I have to follow it myself. Following someone on a new route doesn't do me a lot of good; I won't learn the route until I follow it without a guide.

^ I have found Google street view one of the best bits of new technology for this. I don't seem to navigate using the same kind of landmarks as other people. Actually exploring the route from all different angles online, I spot the kind of details and geometry that will help me stay oriented when I make the journey for real.

It's not just a case of finding any old route, either. To minimise sensory overload, I want to know whether I can avoid busy junctions, noisy pubs/schoolyards etc. by taking a diversion, and over time, I will adjust my route to stay away from other triggers like barking dogs etc. So, the anxiety isn't purely about the possibility of getting lost, it's also that an unknown route might have unexpected sensory triggers like these. I have to be careful for that, because melt-downs can make me bolt, in which case, I can get myself well and truly lost and might even be unable to ask for directions (which I struggle to do at the best of times.)

YES! This is me.

Once I'm familiar with a route, I'm fine with it. I'm even fine to explore off of it by myself and expand my understanding so that I can built a map in my mind.

But if I follow someone else outside of my "map zone" in such a way that I don't know where I am in relation to my "map", once again I'm in a position where people can't understand why I have trouble finding my way back into my "map zone".

Someone once told me that if I just head in the general direction of such and such a landmark that I could see above all the buildings, I would be fine, which I did and it worked, but I hadn't even realised that that was a landmark in the first place - it had to be pointed out to me.

I don't have this problem - I am actually the opposite. I seem to have a gps in my head - I can see how all ways are interconnected, I feel the direction where my target place is (I have a "6th sense" similar to the arrow you sometimes see in video games) and I am free to use any way to get there - as long as I were there once or simply seen the area in google maps (satellite view please). I am almost never lost (except when I am under a sensory overload or just didn't pay any attention, blindly following someone).

Yes, that's a big one for me. A high % of my dreams are about getting lost.

I have those dreams, too. They make me break out in a sweat.