Orientation/Travel Problems Aspie/Autie thing?

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So, I'm not entirely sure whether this is an aspie/autie thing at all, but it is something that has been an issue with me for a long while.
I have a horrendous time getting around. I seem to have close to zero ability to memorize spatial information and such- even though, mentally manipulating visual data and visualization is something I really excel at. Additionally, I am very good with maps, but when I have to create a map for myself, or just get around a space... I fail pretty spectacularly.
However, if I do manage to cobble a mental map together- it's set in stone and I'm very good with it. I've "got it memorized".

Anyone else have issues with navigation? For example, I even have issues in places I been for YEARS like decades even it's like I never put together a mental map to begin with! I am beginning to suspect that this is perhaps contingent upon one's will or motivation to create such a mental representation/picture (I rely very heavily on pictures like Ms.Grandin does). As anyone heard of anything like this before? I am not sure if it is an Aspie/autie thing or not. I know poor short term memory is associated with ASD as are things like ADD/ADHD but this... I'm not sure!

My only issue like this is misplacing things, it's always keys/wallet/cellphone/lighter kind of stuff but that's more about organization. Maybe it would work better for you to think in terms of natural terrain than streets, sidewalks etc. One cool factoid I know about this is that your cochlea (inner ear) can feel variances in gravity everywhere you walk, that's how balance evolved. Hence, maybe what I do differently is constructing a minimalist visual map (i.e. walls, paces, stairs, door handles) as opposed to recreating everything.

I have no sense of direction and once wound up in Mexico while driving along the south Texas border. I also once wound up in Syria while driving in Lebanon.

The single best investment I've ever made in my life has been my GPS system. With this GPS system, I've been able to drive around large metropolitan cities ... finding my way unerringly from my home or hotel to a given destination. It's been great!

Yes, horrid visual-spacial abilities and horrid, horrid, horrid sense of orientation. If I'm following a map, I have to turn the map so it's facing forward from the direction I'm standing in order to understand whether to turn right or left, etc. Also, if I've written or printed directions, I also have to print the reverse directions as I'm never quite sure why or when I'm supposed to turn left whereas getting there I turned right, etc. once several turns have been made in the trip.

I think spending time in mountains & forests did a lot for my sense of direction, particularly skiing - there's nothing like navigating by the sun in a whiteout!

BTW My entire last job was in geographic information systems (digital mapping) so I'd welcome the challenge of some interesting questions. I'll subscribe the thread.

I keep somewhat of a map of my area in my head....kind of how it is organized....like a formula... A friend once asked if I knew where we were going and I responded with x^3 because the directions on the map in my head looked like the graph of x^3. However, I get lost A LOT!! !! !! My husband jokes that I couldn't find my way out of a paper sack! However, once I get enough "data points" I create a map in my mind, and I never get lost there again.

Btw my friend is NT and that kind of creeped her out!

I have a good sense of direction so I can remember which way I came from and where I am at in the store. I can also read maps. I know which was is north or south and east and west and I look at where I am and look at the street names and look on the map. I also look at what town I am in and what area and what the nearby park is and all and look at places on the map and look at where I am for real and find it on the map. When I was in Mexico, I was looking at flea markets with my family and my mom got lost because she couldn't remember which way we came and I remembered the landmarks I saw and led them the way back.

My navigation skills aren't too great. Thank goodness for GPS

The very first time that I had trouble in school with anything was in second grade when we learned the cardinal directions.

It turns out, I have no sense of direction whatsoever.

Without GPS - and sometimes with - I get lost badly unless I'm going to one of the places that I've been to a billion times in my own hometown, or a few places that I've driven to multiple tikmesm myself and have an ingrained "auto-pilot" routine formed in relation to.

I often say 'left' when I mean "right" and vice versa as well.

I'm 42 years old and this has never improved, and regardless of how book-smart I supposedly am, this is something that just does not compute for me. I can read maps, but just have no natural sense of direction. My husband can often say "well home would be in THAT direction" and point randomly even if we're 20 miles away and somehow he seems to know and be right about it. I have no clue in the world.

I sometimes joke, usually when in a hospital or other confusing location and being given directions from someone, that you could blindfold me in my own home, spin me in a circle, remove the blindfold, and tell me to find my bedroom, and I probably wouldn't be able to do it. I would just be disoriented and have to look for visual clues (the doorway with the family photos on the wall surrounding it leads to the kitchen, so go that way)..

really hard to explain how bad I am at this. Even with a compass, I am useless at navigation.

GPS is as necessary to me when traveling as food, clothing, and shelter.

I have trouble with directional words with regards to temperature... I'll say can you turn the air up meaning I want it to get colder, but the other person thinks I want to turn the thermostat up so it will be warmer. I have always had trouble with temperature.

Yes, I'm terrible at this. I need to practice a 5 min. walk at a strange place twice (back and forth) every day for a week before it settles.

I get lost a lot in new places. Strangely, being completely lost doesn't worry me the slightest. At least as long as I'm not short of time, but I usually make sure I have plenty when I'm on new places. I've always been lost anyway. When I'm familiar with a place I'm mostly okay.

I have no scientific justification for this but I feel like it's my sense of orientation (inner compass) that is broke rather than my map. My map is fine

I'm not too bad at this. Before GPS, I used a large format map-book of my city and managed to find my own route to everywhere I needed to go without too much trouble. I love maps and often study them just for fun, so I think that helped too.

I don't really know 100% if I am aspie or not but 2/2 aspie quizes I have taken before said I might be. But I wanted to chime in about the left and right thing. Those confuse me sometimes for some weird reason, and I stopped trying to be honest with most other people about it a long time ago because then they think you must be joking or like extremely disabled or something and It just feels weird and crappy....But I am also left handed if that makes any difference...


and as far as getting around driving in my car (which is almost done being paid for. ish! 2.3 k left wooo!) to any place that is not very close to home or some place that I haven't driven to 3 dozen times I get almost guaranteed lost.....even sadder to say is I am pretty much close to useless as the "passenger seat GPS navigator co pilot" for friends and family when they drive. ALSO if I am on the phone with someone trying to give directions so they can get to where I am, I just can't either. ughh, oh well.....

Like I definitely got lost going to my best friends moms house where I have been hundreds if not thousands of times a few months back and it was so awkward....they were like LOL HOW DID WE GUESS THIS WOULD HAPPEN? and don't get me wrong, I love my friend and also her family to bits and pieces but I have learned to laugh along with them because getting my feelings hurt all the time because I am so sensitive is difficult after a while.. I could probably get lost in my own house too...hahaha

i just discovered this site a few days ago and it seems really like a nice place to read and post and learn about ASD

hi damamisanthropa, and welcome. You sound a lot like me!

I just say "oh I do that all the time" about the left/right thing, and just own the whole "directionally challenged" thing. Nobody's perfect - I just don't have an inner compass that's all.

My theory about me getting left an right mixed up, for myself, is because I think of "right" as the dominant side of everything, because I am right handed, yet reading goes from left to right so left is actually the dominant side.. so I tend to quickly picture an open book when I'm about to say either right or left for any reason, and I picture the left side being the dominant/starting side/point, and associate it with the word "right" because that's the name of MY dominant side... well it's convoluted and it happens in such a split second that I haven't ever stopped to try to correct it in a concentrated manner. I bet I could work on that... hm..

I apparently have an amazing visual compass & a terrible internal one. When I had to travel to Texas in my 20's I was unable to find my bearings the entire time because...no mountains on the horizon. That sort of thing.

Our daughter was drawing detailed maps of our city from memory of walking or driving them at around five or six years old. To this day she uses hints to find left and right each time they are needed (like making L's with her hands to see which one is a forward "L").

Interestingly, some years back it was discovered that when people with Alzheimer's get lost it's because they have a semi-random sense of left and right.

However, my visual-mental maps only go so far. I cannot find things even if I know where they should be if they aren't in a small number of "designated" spots - that's how I manage to get to work on time. Even if I go to the grocery store to get say, a specific can of X, I'll scan the shelves in the appropriate section...and put the can *next* to the one I came for into my basket. It's like my brain gets overwhelmed by the patterns, yet I excel at visual spacial tests.

Spikey.

This whole left/right thing is very interesting for sure!

I find myself wishing I could also blame my habit of pushing the "pull" doors (or trying to always open whatever one is locked) on my neurology but sadly I think I just have a knack for that one.