Sense of direction

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Finally there is a topic that gives me an opportunity to boast about something in which I am better than most inhabitants of this planet! My sense of direction has a form of a built-in compass, and this is a real sense in the meaning of a permanent awareness. I don't need to look at the sun, or even think, to know where North is - I feel it at all times automagically. All objects have spatial orientation for me. If there were 2 identical buildings, but facing 2 different directions, they would look different to me, as if they were painted in different colors. However, the compass sense is not visual, I don't see any lines. It is something extra, which cannot be explained in terms of other senses.

This ability seems to be innate. All my memories include directional information, in the same way as they include colors (albeit with greater precision). It is difficult for me to imagine how one could live without a built-in compass, yet when I describe it to people, they usually laugh or chuckle. From this I infer that most people lack this sense. However, stress may cause my compass to overload and malfunction, which usually has the form of it rotating at random. This makes me totally disoriented, because not only are the directions inacurate, but familiar places appear different and unknown. Most people can function very well without a compass, but not me - I rely on it too much.

Incidentally, I have big problem with oral directions, because, first, I mix up left and right, and, second, I need to translate left-right directions into north-south-east-west. I usually draw a map while someone gives me directions. Regarding left and right, I know which one is which, but I often make mistakes and need to verify 3 times to avoid errors. It is easier for me to point the direction with my hand than figure whether this is left or right. I am right-handed, by the way.

Hi Magic,

That sounds similar to what I experience (awareness of compass points, etc). I hope you don't mind if I ask an unrelated question?

Even though you don't use the sun to orient yourself, do you find that you also have an unusual ability to know what time of day it is (without a watch of course)? People always find it weird that I can tell the time of day based on where the sun is in the sky, its something I discovered when I was pretty young (about 8 years old). I've always suspected its because I have a greater awareness of the orientation of the sun/compass points and automatically adjust as the seasons progress. I don't sit and think about it or anything LOL...its just an automatic thing I've always done.

I thought if you have noticed something similar, I might have a better understanding about why I'm able to do this.

I have a pretty poor sense of direction; but, thanks to a childhood obsession with maps and geography, I know how to read a map pretty well and can use this ability to figure out even how to navigate across the country!

Generally, when I figure out how to get somewhere, I just remember that route and keep using it. If I take a different exit from a building on campus at college, I might temporarily be confused about where I am if I don't recognize my surroundings. My way of finding my way around is bumbling around until I see something I recognize and trying to visualize an internalized map of the area if I can.

To find books I needed for research at the university library, I needed to consult a map of the library! To my credit, it is a pretty big library (four stories tall).

I get lost easily if I'm not upset. If I'm in a meltdown or angry I have a perfect sense of direction.

I never get lost, well i cant say never never, i got lost "once", and that was in a big city, newyork i think, i was new there, but for the most part even deep in the woods i never get lost, i can always seem to find my way. about the only place i do get lost is when it comes to understanding people.

I have suspected myself having NLD for quite a while because of this poor sense of direction I have. I still have my doubts as it might be due to sensory overload rather than poor visual ability (So far I have not found an accurate way to gage visual ability, so I'm not sure whether its good or poor). I seem to get lost only in crowded places such as malls. My sense of direction has improved over time.

I also realize that instead of creating a mental map of the location, or finding landmarks, I seem to navigate my surroundings by perceiving them as a series events. For example I think:

-I made a right turn at the curvy building.
-I'm at the garden now. Keep going north
-I'm at the gates of the garden. Go left and down the street. Left again and into the other gate. I've made a U-turn.

I keep this script in mind, and to get back, I simply do the steps backward:

-Go right. Right again.
-Garden. South.
-Left turn at curvy building.

As such I can only take the same route and go back by that same route. If I have to take a different route, I get disoriented and have to go about making a new script.

If I have to go somewhere for the first time, then I am lost! But if I've been there before and follow exactly the same route I'm fine. So I have a poor sense of direction, but I have a pretty good memory. Actually, my mum (NT) couldn't find her way out of a paper bag!

i got lost trying to find my house the other day.

a friend of mine was driving me back from a party, a party that was right next to my high school, and i got us LOST. i go back and forth from my highschool everyday, on a bus nonetheless, but still. it's crazy.

I have a poor sense of direction. When unfamiliar with an area, I can drive around for a long time trying to find the freeway, for example. Sure, I can map read well and use a compass and so forth, but to simply find my way when I don't have these aids is a real problem. I make sure I have plenty of gasoline in the tank when I drive to unfamiliar places.

Is the lack of navigation more so in AS than in the general population? I to do better with map. I have more difficulty if it is an unfamiliar place or one I have not been to often or in awhile (things change if it has been awhile so even if you could remember directions this road or that might no longer exist) or never been. It is also worse in heavier urban areas where as rural it is a easier (unless it has little or no diversity in the landscape) or further from my home or home area. If there is a lot of traffic or slow traffic, I can have directional and attention problems. I have also gotten lost on screwy roads, where there is a turn I need to make, but there is another road right next to it and if it can be easy to get them confused. Detours are also a problem as they don't always have complete directional signs or lead you to a point no where near where you left the road you started on and end up who knows where.

If I do not pay attention to landmarks, I get lost. If someone is trying to giev me *verbal* directions and I cannot write them down or make a visual picture of them, I might get lost. If I am very overwhelmed by cars whizzing past me and almost getting hit or hitting someone else, kids fighting, etc etc...anything could happen....

I am methodical though...I tend to backtrack my steps until I find what was familiar and then try a new avenue, if that doesn't work, backtrack to where I was and try the next most likely, etc etc, and this almost always works. It is mostly stressful when I am on a time constraint or surrounded by people millign around me.

I think my icon pretty much sums up what my sense of direction is like...

I have no idea of which way is north, south, east, or west. I have to literally turn maps around so that the direction I'm facing is up. And without landmarks, I'm totally lost-- I've gotten horribly confused when two distinct locations happened to look similar, and I've even thought the same place was two different places when approached from different directions!

Oh, and I have trouble with left and right as well, for what it's worth. My mnemonic that I use is that they're in alphabetical order. Yes, I know, a particularly Aspie way of thinking about it...

I definately come under the permantly confused category. I can't tell left from right (I'm right-handed). People who know me will point because I really am clueless! I also do that turning the map round to the direction I am travelling. I can't seem to sequence places very well. Even in my small hometown I get lost all the time. I have specific routes that I follow to places but if a road is closed or something I am completely thrown. Even on short journeys I have to stop (or pull over if I'm driving) and close my eyes to try and visualise where I am. If I can't figure it out I just wander aimlessly until I come across something I recogise. It's pointless stopping and asking because I know I won't properly interpret what was said.

On the plus side, I don't mind driving long distances. Because I don't know where I am even in what should be familiar places it makes little difference to me if I have never been somewhere before. Lost and confused is my regular state wherever I am.