Directionally challenged

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For my entire life, I've had problems with directions. If someone tells me to turn left, I have to look at my hands and see which one makes an L to know which way is which. I also constantly mess up east and west (though have gotten better about that over time).

Does anyone else have this issue? Or is it just me?

I know my left, rights, easts and wests. I can also use a map very well. Can't for the life of me remember how to get somewhere unless I've been there many times. Seriously used to work other side of town and went there each day and now I can't remember how to get there. I have the worst ability to understand spatially where I am in reference to streets and houses etc. don't have the same issues in nature however.

I have gotten lost in people's houses. I wish I was joking.

Well, at least it isn't your OWN house...

As for remembering Right and Left, I think what I did was remember that cars drive on the right side of the street, and after that things began to click. (Well, at least they do in the US) Keep in mind this was when I was 4~5 years old.

I got lost trying to find my own house once... granted it was foggy and I hadn't lived there long.

I am indeed directionally challenged. And it's especially bad when people try to describe where I'm going, instead of, say, giving me actual street names to look for. I have to say, if it wasn't for Google Maps I would be in big trouble because it lets me see what the building I'm looking for looks like.

im really bad with this
the only reason I know my left my right is because I have a scar on my left wrist from when I had pins in it when I broke it. verbal instructions go in one ear and right out the other

Don't worry, Einstein was also directionally impaired. I believe the technical term is topographical agnosia. It's very common with aspies. I didn't know right from left until I got into the habit of always wearing a watch on my left hand.

Same here. I go on off-path all the time. I think it has alot to do with being hyper-vigilant. I know I'd be in trouble if I got lost, so I have to force myself to remember certain trees or other landmarks.

I'm probably the most directionally ret*d person I've ever known. Unless I've been down a certain route or at a certain place numerous times, I get lost very easily. But even then, I still can wander around and be all like, "Where the hell am I?"

Thank God for the MapQuest app on my phone! That thing is a lifesaver!

I'm directionally challenged also. I'm so used to getting lost that it doesn't even stress me anymore. I always know I'll find my way out of the maze eventually.

Thanks for giving its proper name.

I know left from right, and that's about it. If I didn't live in a place where one can identify west by looking at the mountains, I'd never know which direction I was going in. For all my amazing auditory/visual memory skills, I can't find my way anywhere ever unless it's in a straight line. I've been going back and forth between my parents' houses since I was seven and I still wouldn't be able to get from one to the other by myself if I had to. It's a good thing my sister has a compass in her head.

I have lived my whole life in Cape Town, and people try to explain to me where to go when I don't know any names or places. I don't seem to go out a lot or explore as much. Perhaps I do, I just don't seem to bother to learn the names, that could probably be part of my disability and by using Google-Maps, especially Street-View has helped me remember the corners and buildings, finding places much much quicker when arriving in the area.

When I was a child I just though "which hand would I use to grab a pencil to draw with"- and thats what made it all 'click'.

I have a way of looking around side to side like I'm lost, sometimes a wide circular swoop of my head, EVEN when I'm in a familiar place like a large building. When I was in the military, coming out of my room in a long hall, I always had to look both ways, sometimes twice, in order to know which way to go. My roommate asked me if I had a drug problem. I try to do this motion discretely now and get embarrassed if people notice. What I'm doing is looking for familiar objects. That's the only way I can get anywhere is via familiar objects.

There's nothing like the military to increase one's social anxiety (except for name tags = super super helpful). All the buildings, vehicles, and rooms look the same on bases. You're expected to navigate well. I found this very difficult.

I learned left and right at age 9 when my mother forced me to write marker on my hands until I got it (so embarrassing, but effective!). I memorized a rule of generalizing other people's left and right by remembering "my right, faces their left, etc. etc." It takes about 5 seconds to process this, making learning dance moves or martial arts moves hell.

I get my left and right hands mixed up a lot. Don't ask me to do the Hokey Pokey. And I need written directions both for getting to and coming back from new places.