I had “north sense” for most of my life, but it abruptly turned off while driving one day in my 30s. It was extremely disorienting and distressing. It was gone for a couple years, suddenly came back one day, which was an incredible feeling, like regaining an entire limb I had lost.
It went away again the next day, and for the next month I got occasional flashes of it, then it was gone for good. It’s been a decade now and the world still feels wrong. There’s places I go to that don’t seem like the same place because my earlier memories include the directional layout, so now it feels uncanny-valley off.
In my dreams, I still have my directional sense, just like any other sense. I imagine it’s like anyone else with a lost sense, your dreams hallucinate your perception of the world to properly match your prior experience.
Holy frijoles, that’s so scary! I have called myself a homing pigeon my whole life because of my innate sense of direction - so having this happens sounds utterly awful. I can only imagine how wrong everything must feel.
As I’m now approaching my 30-somethings, I have a new and extremely niche fear unlocked, haha
It still strikes me at odd times while driving that I have no idea which direction I’m actually going. During the first few years of adjustment I actually managed to get going the wrong way on the freeway and didn’t immediately realize it. I had to get a GPS specifically for that reason. Not to plan my route, but just to remind me where I am and where I’m going.
I cope pretty well now. I had to develop habits that were entirely unnecessary before, like memorizing turns to make sure I’m going the right way when I leave a place I’ve gone to for the first time.
I had “north sense” for most of my life, but it abruptly turned off while driving one day in my 30s. It was extremely disorienting and distressing. It was gone for a couple years, suddenly came back one day, which was an incredible feeling, like regaining an entire limb I had lost. It went away again the next day, and for the next month I got occasional flashes of it, then it was gone for good. It’s been a decade now and the world still feels wrong. There’s places I go to that don’t seem like the same place because my earlier memories include the directional layout, so now it feels uncanny-valley off.
In my dreams, I still have my directional sense, just like any other sense. I imagine it’s like anyone else with a lost sense, your dreams hallucinate your perception of the world to properly match your prior experience.
Holy frijoles, that’s so scary! I have called myself a homing pigeon my whole life because of my innate sense of direction - so having this happens sounds utterly awful. I can only imagine how wrong everything must feel.
As I’m now approaching my 30-somethings, I have a new and extremely niche fear unlocked, haha
It fucking SUCKED, and still does.
It still strikes me at odd times while driving that I have no idea which direction I’m actually going. During the first few years of adjustment I actually managed to get going the wrong way on the freeway and didn’t immediately realize it. I had to get a GPS specifically for that reason. Not to plan my route, but just to remind me where I am and where I’m going.
I cope pretty well now. I had to develop habits that were entirely unnecessary before, like memorizing turns to make sure I’m going the right way when I leave a place I’ve gone to for the first time.
That sounds awful. But you still can tell relative directions, yeah? Your right from left, up from down?