Are you directionally dysfunctional?
I am so embarrassed. I was walking down the street to intercept my grand daughter who was walking home from school. I passed a house about half a block from our house and heard at least two dogs in the house. One was howling, the other was whining and barking. The were no cars around the house, and it hit me that I’d been hearing the poor things for at least a couple of hours (when I go sit on the deck to read,) but I hadn’t realized they were in a house.
The lady who lives there is a notorious crack head. Lots of run ins with the law.
Anyway, I called the non emergency number to tell the police about it. I said, “She’s on the corner of 13th and Maris.”
“OK, is it the southeast corner or the north west corner…..” I went “Oh no! I…I’m horrible with directions…..”
He was so nice. He proceeds to say, “So, it’s on the corner”
“Yes.”
Is the house on the downtown side of the road or the Rubbermaid side of the road?”
It confused me for a second then he said, “Ok. If you were starting from 13th street, walking to downtown, would you be walking toward the house or away from the house?”
“I would be walking away from the house.” It hit me then where he was going.
“Now, is it on the Walmart side or the Island Park side?”
“The Walmart side.”
“OK. Then it’s on the South west corner.”
“Yes.”
I felt SO STUPID! But I’ve always been that way!
My daughter, on the other hand, can be in a strange town, in pitch darkness and know instantly which direction we are facing. I don’t know how she does it. She doesn’t either. She just “knows,” she says.
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28 Answers
Not disfunctional but I have noticed that the older I get the less accurate my directional beacon has become. I often wonder if it has to do with the amount of time I spend indoors.
I have always been terrible at directions. I even screw up my left and right now and then. I use my GPS to get from the grocery store to home because at night I can’t remember or figure out how to get home without visual markers.
I still have to wink my right eye to make sure which direction right is….what is up with us @keobooks?
Nope, not in the least. When I moved to a brand new city I discovered that I am great at getting around – even in a place I had never lived. I was very pleasantly surprised.
I wonder if people like me are missing something physically. Like, in our brains or something. Or…something.
http://www.radiolab.org/2011/jan/25/ – a relevant radio program I heard a few weeks ago; especially the You Are Here, and Bird’s Eye View segments (but Finding Emilie is worth a listen for everyone).
I also have dysgraphia. That just means that if I’m not careful, I will write some letters upside down or backwards. I’m also extremely disorganized and not very good at doing things in sequence, creating or following a system of organization. I’ve always assumed all that was related. It gets dumped into ADHD by most people I’ve seen about it—but it’s not. It’s actually something to do with executive functioning for me.
@hearkat—I’ll take a listen later. I’ve got a cranky toddler up and around now.
I don’t have any of those problems @keobooks.
This is not an uncommon affliction (if you want to call it that.) You have to find what little clues work for you. The opposite is the person who always knows where he/she is, in relation to the world. Driven around blindfolded (she) could retrace the trip afterwards.
I wonder if it has to do with some sort of super-sensitivity to he magnetic poles.
I’m bad with that also, I hear “No, its on your other left”, quite often.
However I can get completely lost somewhere, and if i make a few random turns, I always end up exactly where I was trying to go.
Yes, I am terrible at directions. Now have me decorate your house and I’ll make up for it.
Right brained blonde, half brilliant, half completely scattered. lol
Don’t feel embarrassed for being directionally dysfunctional. Many people are, including my partner, and it isn’t a sign of lack of intelligence.
I’m not, but put me indoors or underground, and the internal GPS stops working. I’ve been to one large mall with all kinds of levels and turns a dozen times and still can’t find certain stores without wandering around or directional signs.
It would be interesting to see if there is information on this. Surely there is some physiological study that has been done on this topic.
I think we’re talking about two different things here. There is the ability to always know where North is, day or night; a kind of innate magnetic compass. I am real good at this. It’s a very useful instinct, but it does you no good if you don’t know where you are in relation to your destination.
Then there is the ability to find your way to a destination after a mere glance at a map, or with minimal instruction. This is also related to the ability to backtrack from a destination to the point of origin with seemingly little to no information to go on. This is described as an innate dead reckoning or a homing instinct; the ability to employ dead reckoning on a subliminal level. I’m really good at this as well and it makes me an excellent blue water sailor and I’m also good to have around on a hike in the mountains. Science is having difficulty explaining this ability even in homing pigeons, much less humans.
I’ve read that more men have the innate magnetic compass than women because, as we all supposedly have minute iron deposits in the tips of our noses which react to the poles, women lose a lot of iron every month so their sense is weaker. Sounds good, but a bit 19th century to me. The links above are from Scientific American and describe where we’re at on these phenomena at the moment.
I think it’s interesting that I immediately lose these abilities if I have the slightest bit of alcohol or opiates or cannabis in my system. One prescription vicodin, or one hit off a joint, or even just one beer and my navagation abilities are like most land lubber’s: I must rely more on charts and compass than instinct. Coffee seems to sharpen it, though.
I am incapable of determining east/west/north/south. If I can’t actually see the place I’m going to or talking about, I have no idea where it is…even if I’ve been there a million times. I’ve gotten lost more times than I can remember. Sigh.
When we go somewhere in the car, my wife and I have a deal. I drive and she navigates.
It works out better this way.
Last time we reversed rolls, her driving skills scared the crap out of me (she likes to ride up peoples’ ass) and I got us lost.
I am pretty spatially-challenged in general. I blame it on generations of Brahmin ancestors who never had to demonstrate any spatial skills at all.
The only way I can figure out the way to a place is to be sure to have plenty of time in advance to get lost and then find my way. Once I get lost and then orient myself, I’m fine, but I have almost no chance of finding a location on the first time without getting lost.
I’m better with east/west, north/south than I am with left/right.
Any time I drive anywhere for the first time, I give myself an hour to get lost.
I scared a new friend today trying to talk and drive at the same time. lolol
@Seek_Kolinahr : East/West sure is easy when you live in Florida, isn’t it? :-p When I was learning to drive, East would take me into the Atlantic Ocean, and West to the Everglades.
I just have to remember that Walmart is…. um…. wait….k. South and Island Park is…north. And downtown is….west and Rubbermaid is east.
Yeah, I just look for the sun and go from there.
At this time of day? It’s starting to head west.
Oh no…I’m all kinds of confused now. I thought it was just “up.” Now you’re telling me it’s heading for down town. (Or was that Rubbermaid?)
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