I Can't Describe Directions Even When I Know Where Something Is.

[Daydreamer]

Sometimes a lost stranger will stop and ask me for directions. I often dread this. Especially when they ask me about a place that I know well, because it's even more frustrating when I can't provide instructions.

If they'd allow, I could easily physically guide them there. We could walk together and that way we'd get to the intended destination. But standing in one place, I can't help at all. If there was enough time, I could easily draw them a detailed picture of all the various locations from memory in the order the stranger would have to pass them to get there. Yet translating those visual images in my mind into verbal directions...I'm stumped. Whilst I could describe it in words to myself, the way in which I would recall them would not make sense to a stranger. I tend to think of directions not in their physical relation to one another, but through seemingly minor details that piece them together. For example, I know that I'm going the right way because I pass some purple orchids, only just miss a spiky bush, and I also know that I'm on schedule if I hear a certain bird call when I'm at the mailbox.

But you can't direct someone through an area they are unfamiliar with by using patterns you've noticed overtime. I wish that it was possible to have a super computer which could show my thoughts in photograph form on a digital screen. Then I could show that person just where to go. But instead I have to say "No, sorry I don't know where that is" when more accurately "I know that route off by heart, to the point where it can feel as though I'm in Groundhog day because I can predict what I'm going to hear/smell/see next at certain points on that route. However, I can't direct you there because when I try to apply instructions to the memory pictures in my mind's eye I feel as though I'm on the teacups at the fairground because my brain is put in a spin. I hate it because I know the way so well, yet I don't know it at all at the same time".

 

[MeghanWithAnH]

It can be really frustrating when you have trouble doing something that people assume everyone can easily do. I could probably describe directions if I needed to, (although I could easily flip left and right without noticing) but understanding someone else's spoken directions is beyond me. People try to be helpful by explaining how to get somewhere but I get nothing out of it until I can get them to give me the address or a specific place name so I can put it in my phone to see a map of it. I don't think I could give directions either when I was younger. I remember when I took a drivers ed class the instructor asked me where I lived so he could drop me off at home after driving practice and I didn't know how to describe it other than giving my address, which wouldn't have helped because we were on a side street. I had to say that I didn't know where I lived, which wasn't true. I only knew how to get there from school and couldn't recognize the area we were in, so we had to go back to the school for me to figure out how to get home. He was then irritated because apparently we had been really close to where I lived when he asked me. I had no idea because I never know where anything is unless I've driven or walked there myself, which other people find hard to understand.

 

[Progster]

I know what you mean. It's the pressure of the moment that is preventing me from having access to the knowledge, and my mind seizes up. If I can somehow detach myself from the situation, then a mental image will come, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes it's easier to just say that you don't know.

 

[SusanLR]

I have a good concept of compass directions all the time which help, but, many people
say they don't know what north, south, east or west is.
I know how I get to places I go mostly by physical landmarks.
Main street names I remember. Small ones I pay no attention to.
It is hard to tell someone to go north on Landmark to the big house on a corner and turn left
to a pond on the right where you'll turn south about 3 blocks on down the road until you come to
a statue then take a right to the church with cypress bogs and follow them to the end of a parking lot
...well you get the idea.
They can't see the pictures in my head.

 

[clg114]

I have a good concept of compass directions all the time which help, but, many people
say they don't know what north, south, east or west is.
I know how I get to places I go mostly by physical landmarks.
Main street names I remember. Small ones I pay no attention to.
It is hard to tell someone to go north on Landmark to the big house on a corner and turn left
to a pond on the right where you'll turn south about 3 blocks on down the road until you come to
a statue then take a right to the church with cypress bogs and follow them to the end of a parking lot
...well you get the idea.
They can't see the pictures in my head.

This is exactly how it is for me. I am surprised how many people do not know one direction from another. Even in these times when most vehicles have built in compasses. For me, I find my way by direction first and land marks second. I have found that my sense of direction is based on knowing where the sun is. One time many years ago, I was riding in the high desert, early in the spring. It was very cloudy and it was hard to tell where the sun was. I was in a sea of sagebrush that was crisscrossed with trails, no landmarks. I was about 30 miles from the mountains on the north and south. I was south of my truck. When it was time to go back to the truck, load up and go home, I started riding toward what I thought was the mountains to my north. I rode about 2 or 3 miles before I realized that there was snow on the mountains. The snow on the mountains to my north was already melted (south facing slope). I stopped and looked behind me and saw the north mountains. I was riding in wrong direction, so I turned around and went back to my truck.

 

[Mary Terry]

I have a good concept of compass directions all the time which help, but, many people
say they don't know what north, south, east or west is.
I know how I get to places I go mostly by physical landmarks.
Main street names I remember. Small ones I pay no attention to.
It is hard to tell someone to go north on Landmark to the big house on a corner and turn left
to a pond on the right where you'll turn south about 3 blocks on down the road until you come to
a statue then take a right to the church with cypress bogs and follow them to the end of a parking lot
...well you get the idea.
They can't see the pictures in my head.

My mother relied on pictures that used to be in her head. She'd say things like: 'go down that road where the Dime store used to be and turn left where that big old oak tree used to be beside that field where Farmer Brown used to grow corn, and keep going till you get to where that house burned down about 20 years ago.'

Thank goodness for specific street addresses and GPS.

 

[Graphin]

I am always failing dramatically

 

[Danno]

I have trouble even guiding *myself* along routes sometimes if familiar landmarks are obscured/not how they usually are when I pass - if a building has scaffolding around it one day, it will completely throw me... Or if I'm looking for a particular shop I've passed a thousand times but they've changed the storefront (coffee shop taking outdoor tables in over the winter for example) I will walk straight past it.
I've taken to loading Google Maps aerial view with GPS on my smartphone if I do get in any trouble trying to find somewhere, so I can get a rough birds eye view of where I am and what direction to turn - I would use Street View but it's often out of date!

 

[LadyBird84]

It depends on where I am. For instance, I know how to get to most places from my house so if someone were to ask me directions when I'm near my house I'll be ok. (But you'll get the 'take a left at McD's, turn right at the statue' kind of directions. I don't do street names.) But if I'm in a place I don't know as well, I'm often not sure in the moment. I'll usually tell them 'Go in this direction and ask again at the train station' or whatever. And then they're gone and I remember EXACTLY how to get to the place they want to go of course.