Directional Sense

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Today I finally had my very first appointment with the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville NC. Of course the first one is exhausting and stressful. I got there at 10 AM ANd was there until 1:45, mostly waiting, but I took my sketch pad so that is no big deal.

Driving there takes 40 minutes, but the directionas are easy! Getting there and trying to find the office I need : .

First, I go in with my mom and daughter, and there are so many people there! They are all friendly, smiling at us and saying hello, but that is quite overwhelming. With my mom there I can find the clinic I need. I went through all of this stuff- paperwork, a lot of questionnaires, a lot of information I cant remember now (Ill call them tomorrow).

So I go to leave, and I totally go blank right out of the exam room! The nurse tells me which way to go, and I try to find the waiting room I was at for 2 hours, which took a minute, then the lady in the hall helps me find an elevator, and upon seeing the Rainman look upon my face, explains very clearly, as if talking to a toddler, how to get to the gazebo where my family is waiting. God Bless patient people!

So driving to a strange place sometimes gives me the runs, but just getting around in there was so difficult I will need a prescription to be able to go back alone! That is how bad my sense of direction and social anxiety are!

Not to mention, I think I was supposed to do something and I forgot so now I will need to call them back. SOmething to do with blood work, mental health, and an eye exam- all important!! !! !!

I always print google maps of the places I have to go but I don´t know how to get there. They are helpful! Then I have to memorize the map like take the forth on the left etc... But if you are driving with another person he/she can act as a co-pilot and tell you where you have to go. I´m also ashamed of asking information although sometimes it helps.

Last edited by Wedge on 23 Apr 2010, 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have a very bad sense of direction, when I'm in crowded areas, and I can get lost, easily.

I get the driving directions because I can use those, but in this case I have no problems getting there- it is inside the hospital that gets crazy fr me! THey should make a Google Map of the VAMC!

I'd have problems with that too. Like when my disability job network office moved downstairs it was a nightmare to find and I got lost trying to get out too.

i usually manage to stumble into the right place.

I went to a class for a whole semester and always just tagged along with a group who walked there from a class we were in together directly before it. The last class of semester I was late and did not attend the earlier class and tried to find the class on my own. I was in the right building but I could not find the class. I looked for it for an hour (the time the class goes for) and never found it.

I do not find maps useful.

haha that's pretty funny I get lost in labyrinth type buildings all the time. They are nightmare for me, in reality and also in my dreams.

I don't get lost outside. I have an innate sense of direction there, whether I'm driving or walking in the countryside. but get me inside and forget about it. In hospitals they have those painted coloured lines for departments. They should have those in office buildings too.

I understand complete your plight. Truly I am the guy that, at least if tasked to talking, will miss a turn he's made a hundrend time hence. I easily get confused whenever there's lots of people involved. Appear quite the moron/addict.

Wow...so many other ppl who can't find their way out of a paper bag. That has always driven me nuts!

~Kate

I rarely get lost. When I am in a strange city the first thing I learn are the major roads and avenue. I use them as reference lines. Knowing the directions of a few streets and roads I can find just about anything with very little input from maps or verbal directions.

Out in the open I use the sky as my compass (weather permitting).

ruveyn

I will bring up a google map and study it for a little while and then I find I can recall it mentally as I need it.

I kid my wife that she would get lost in a closet but I've always had map memory as I call it and I can generally sense north, south. Don't know why or how but I usually can get reoriented.

I have a very good sense of direction. Given a map, or a basic knowledge of an area, I can usually get where I want to go without any problems.

What I can't stand is people giving me verbal directions. Last week I had to go and meet a colleague, and I said "I've got a map in front of me, just give me the building number and road name and I'll get there." The response: "You want to turn right out of the estate, but it's left turn only, so turn left, follow that road until..." I just sat there and waited for the noise to stop, then asked for the road name again. What's wrong with these people?!

I get lost and panicky inside buildings. If I go to the doctors I have to have someone walk me from the waiting room to the doctor's office and right back again. Whenever I'm in a building I make a mental note of "turn right, then left, the right" etc so that I can reverse the directions and try to find my way out. Public toilets are another nightmare. Often there are two doors to go through initially, once in the toilets I try to pick one near the main door and have to make a mental note of "turn left" etc or try to observe any markings on the main door that make it different from the other doors in there. Venus

I get lost easily, even after looking at a map. I just have no sense of direction. Everyone seems to know their way around the hallways that connect a few of the buildings at my university and even when I've been led to the same place a few times I can't find my way there myself. Finding my way outside is a bit easier, just because it's a more open space.

I like to think my native american ancestry and spatial cognitive style explains my excellent sense of direction.

It is an utterly alien thing, trying to consider being lost, used to frustrate my friends, we'd be hanging out up on a hill in the woods, as pothead teenagers in kentucky do, then they'd suggest heading back, so I bee-line straight through brambles, brush, creeks, rough terrain, right to the destination while they wander the long way back.