AS and sense of direction?

Post Reply New Topic

I can relate to many of the comments. I'm left handed and can,t tell left from right unless think about it, but I almost alway know where I am and how to get where I want to go, much better than almost anyone I know. If I space out, however, I'll drive to somewhere other than where I set out to go. GPS can be dangerous and wonderful.

I think much of this is learned. I grew up in LA, so getting lost was not an option.

I look at shadows to find north. I use smell to find water. I study maps when I go somewhere new. When I go to South America, i get much more confused.

I can relate to many of the comments. I,m left handed and can,t tell left from right unless think about it, but I almost alway know where I am and how to get where I want to go, much better than almost anyone I know. If I space out, however, I,ll drive to somewhere other than where I set out to go. GPS can be dangerous and wonderful.

I tThink much of this is learned. I grew up in LA, so getting lost was not an option.

I look at shadows to find north. I use smell to find water. I study maps when I go somewhere new. When I go to South America, i get much more confused.

After playing Minecraft for hours, I actually started getting a good sense of direction. :P

With a map and a compass I'm brilliant.

In a built up area I'm pretty clueless, I've lived in the same place for most of the last 20 years but I have no idea what the names of any of the streets around my house are.

Huh? Sorry... I got lost.

1. i have a H-O-R-R-B-L-E sense of direction. people tell me, 'you can't possibly get lost, it's so easy to find', and i know i'm going to get lost, because i always do.
2. if i've walked a hundred times a certain way, my legs remember the way but not my head, so don't ask me how to get to the supermarket i've walked to several times a week for the past five years, because i can't tell you. but if i start walking i'll get there.
3. i got lost trying to find my way from the other side of the room toward the computer. (just kidding on that one)

My sense of direction is totally rubbish. I put it down to dyspraxia, rather than AS.

Like some others I have a really good sense of direction better than most people I know by a lot - maybe because I grew up in the woods and had big fear of getting lost I can usually tell where north is even without sun to reference. Also am spatially quite adept love exploring small roads and usually have an idea where I wi8ll end up.

In the real word my sense of direction is probably above average.

In simulated environments (computer games) I have no frame of reference
so that sense drops to near zero.

I do get lost:
1. I do get lost in video games
2. I do get lost inside real life buildings (especially when no windows)
3. I do get lost trying to follow directions
4. I don't register my location if I get a ride somewhere.
5. I do have to think about left vs right

I don't get lost:
1. If I walk from one location to another (real world), I will always be able to do so again.
2. If I have walked to where I am (outdoors), I will always be able to point to where I started.
3. I can follow a map. If I'm walking (or bicycling).
4. I like to know where new places are in relation to places I already know. Uncomfortable if I dont

In addition: I don't ever remember street names, I relate to landscape features and buildings:
For example, my idea of directions is:
Turn left at the big white barn, keep going for a while until you see "Fern's bed and breakfast" then turn right, follow that road until you see a lot of cows and watch for the big yellow tractor.

I keep mixing up left and right...

I can't even begin to imagine what a sense of direction feels like.

Inside a building I have no intuitive understanding of my position within it, I have no plan or birds-eye view. I have tried to make a plan drawing of the two - bedroom flat where I've lived for 4 years and the only way I can do it is to walk around the place working out how the rooms fit together. I also cannot type: I have to look at the keyboard to find the keys still after years of practice. No matter how long I've lived or worked in a building I have no idea my orientation with respect to the roads outside and to work it out means walking up and down, spinning round, closing my eyes and concentrating for 5 minutes or so with no distractions while my brain almost physically aches with the effort.

The only way I can find my way to and from places for the first 30 or so times is either with a map (which I'm fine with) or by writing down a description at almost every step and following it in reverse to get back.

I have never confused left and right though; I find it no more difficult than forwards and backwards or up and down and I'm fine on the London underground with it's schematic map although I have no sense of which direction I'm traveling while underground.

My mom's sense of direction...nil.
My dad's sense of direction...human GPS
My sense of direction...okay.
My mom is very social, very sensitive and sort of rigid. She doesn't have special interests.
My dad isn't social really, but he also isn't sensitive or rigid. He's obsessed with history.
Me, I have Asperger's.

My sense of direction sucks.

I get lost very easily, even in places I am supposed to know well.

Once in 7th grade I got lost on my own floor and went to the boys' toilette.
There weren't any boys there at the moment, but a classmate saw me coming out of the toilette and started laughing, and then told me I had gone to the males' toilette.

In my 1st grade report card a teacher wrote that I had a terrible sense of direction and that I got lost in school a lot if I weren't with a classmate or a teacher.

Even trying to tell the way to my house from a place is very difficult for me.

But, my father is very likely an high-functioning autistic adult, and his sense of direction is amazing.