Getting lost or wandering with out realizing it...

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Do you easily get lost or wander with out realizing it at first?

I have, if I think about something that my mind is currently being devoted to, I only subconsciously account for navigation at that point and I don't directly focus on anything around me.

Say for instance, I am on break from work, and I am getting ready to head back, the place I am eating at, I'll head out of the door going the wrong direction, and I'll only subconsciously look at just the general shape of things and think I am going back to work, but about 10 minutes later I'll end up at some intersection that I know was not along the way and then I realize I walked in the wrong direction for no reason for quite some time.

I also do this while driving, all the streets just look the same, thats why I prefer mountain driving if I don't have GPS.

I wonder if you are dissociating?

I've always had problems with getting lost. There's something that frequently makes me turn the wrong direction even if it's a route I've traveled several times before. I'll get to a particular place in the route and every time I can't remember which direction to turn. Or a certain part of it will suddenly look unfamiliar and I start panicking that I've taken a wrong turn, so then I do take a wrong turn even though I was going the right direction all along. I've learned to tack on thirty minutes to an hour to my start time when I'm going to be trying to find someplace I've never been to before. I know I'll get lost somewhere along the way. I've explored a large part of two different cities by being lost.

I definitely do this. A lot, actually. But I don't get lost. I think this is because of the rigorous and repetitive practice provided by my job (delivery driver), as well as my obsessive interest in maps and geography. I have the entire metropolitan area where I live mapped in great detail in my mind. I CAN'T get lost. I can be on auto-pilot, mentally, but my auto-pilot is so hard-wired for proper routes and destinations that it goes exactly where it is supposed to, nearly every time.

Good topic. I'm sure a lot of us can relate to this.

I can fall into this as well; though it is not so much getting lost spatially, but mentally, and I end up backtracking to go where I was originally going. Wandering through supermarkets is a favorite past-time of mine. On the plus side, I find the best deals on food and save some money.