I dont know if its just me but it seems that according to everyone i know im Mr.Geographic. People ask me where a place is in Ontario and i spit out a location and direction in like two seconds.

When i was a kid i had a easier time remembering places, and when i took a route in a car or boat i would retake that route in my head many more times. I dont know if its cause i remember places easier or have a photographic memory but i seem to remember locations better than alot of people.

I was never interested in reading maps as a hobby i just naturally interpreted easier i guess.

Is this an example of the hunter gatherer mindset people with ADD are said to have?

thanks

i dont know if it has to do with hunter gatherer mindset or not but it indicates a high spacial reasoning. according to my friends im the same way. i think i read somewhere on these forums that people with adhd are highly visual/spacial, i don't know if that true or not but it sounds reasonable enough.

Is this an example of the hunter gatherer mindset people with ADD are said to have?



NOT if you mix it with dyslexia. . . . .

It may or not be a part of photographic ability as I also have a photographic ability but I suck at directions. . .umm that would be normal people directions. I can get there but I can not tell you how to. . . . I can see pictures in my mind and can do so from any angle you want with a single view . .

Gary used to wonder why the pilots from a near by private air port always seem to fly over our land. I knew because of the way Gary had his stuff and moved it daily it looked like a moving puzzle. He didn't give it much thought until he actually saw it from the air. . . . which it was exactly as I described it even though I had never actually been above it in an air plane . . . I simply move the angel in my mind. . . . .

He is good with directions like you however he can not automatically see things from different angles . . . . . . I see things from one view I can see them all automatically. . . .

North south all that jive means noting to me really. . . . I can read a map and such but I simply do not share the same reference points as most people. So while ADD may not hinder your ability to give directions Gary does this very well also it doesn't mean it is a strength common to all ADDers.

I love the idea of getting old maps and posting them all over my room.....

Hunter gather thing? I don't know....Last week I was hunting down this bag of lays potato chips..... (scarcasm)

But Yep~yep, Johnnny, spacial thinking~! its FUUUUN!

Moveing stuff with ur mind, as long as your inside!

When i was a kid i had a easier time remembering places, and when i took a route in a car or boat i would retake that route in my head many more times. I dont know if its cause i remember places easier or have a photographic memory but i seem to remember locations better than alot of people
You have FUhN! lots of fun retraceing ur steps! Hehe~!

Do what comes naturally, your fun makes U smarts!

bai~bai!

Yup, I've always been a map-head and good at finding my way to places.

Being in a big, confusing city, even if I don't know exactly where I am I say "I'll just follow my nose" and usually end up in the right place. The downside is that on the few occasions I'm completely lost I feel very uneasy.

I think I'm a spatial persion generally.

It may or not be a part of photographic ability as I also have a photographic ability but I suck at directions. . .umm that would be normal people directions. I can get there but I can not tell you how to. . . . I can see pictures in my mind and can do so from any angle you want with a single view . .

I'm like this as well... though possibly for a different reason. For one... I see too many ways of getting from point A to point B. The way I would take often depends on the day and the situation, and sometimes I have difficulty not changing my mind. Also, even though I often see the picture clearly, I think I often make errors converting the "picture" to "words", especially in terms of direction (left/right, east/west). It's easiest for me to simply draw a map rather than to give verbal directions.

I think these are good examples of how certain individuals may have difficulty expressing certain strengths, because other issues inhibit the expression of them. One might have spatial strength, but if one has difficulty communicating this, it might appear as if one does not. Especially when compared to those who can simply memorize the directions without being able to see all the possibilities.

I think I often make errors converting the "picture" to "words", especially in terms of direction (left/right, east/west). It's easiest for me to simply draw a map rather than to give verbal directions.


Exactly . . . . . but map drawing can be a tad difficult over the phone, this is why I simply have them talk to Gary. He is good at instructions over the phone me well I am the one who should give repo men directions to your house . . . .they will never find it -LOL!

So I am not the only one who suddenly decides oh I think I will go this way today . . . . :confused:

Gary finds one way of getting some where and that is the only way to get there which drives me nuts in traffic jams. . . . .there is normally more than one way to reach any given destination. . . . .as long as you are going in the right direction you will get there. . . . .Gary doesn't buy that at all.Okay so I have gotten lost a few times but I have yet to fall off the edge of the earth and I always manage to find my way home. . . .even through Gary says how I arrive any where is an enigma to him.

He is so directly comfortable when he gets lost he freaks. He was driving through Midland one time and heading for San Angelo I kept telling him he was going the wrong way because the tall city building were not in the right place. They are supposed to be directly behind and in the middle of the rear view mirror, which he did not find helpful at all. . . . .especially sense I was right he was on the wrong road. . . . . .even though I had never been lost on that paticular highway I knew which direction to drive. . . . .he hates it when that happens. :D because to him I have no sense of direction. I do have a sense of direction but he doesn't understand it.

When they add onto a town I have been to before I simply see the new stuff on top of the old map in my head. Unmedicated I can have problems holding the picture in my mind. . . .

So I am not the only one who suddenly decides oh I think I will go this way today . . . .You mean that's not normal? ;) For me there's often a boredom thing going on that makes me vary my route.

And what is it with other people about the fear of getting lost? It's as if they consider it humiliating or dangerous or something.

I've also noticed that many people are certain that their one way of going from A to B is the "correct" one (presumably they think it's the shortest).

With multiple ways I know I have no correct route. Only if I'm sad enough (which I am) to use a mapping website do I see which is shortest, although it doesn't make me use that way all the time.

I think these are good examples of how certain individuals may have difficulty expressing certain strengths, because other issues inhibit the expression of them. One might have spatial strength, but if one has difficulty communicating this, it might appear as if one does not. Especially when compared to those who can simply memorize the directions without being able to see all the possibilities.

Wow what a good point, I hadn't considered this before. I always assumed I sucked at directions and I was simply lucky enough to accidently drive to the same house every day. . . . . but you are right I do have trouble communicating directions. I see them but adding words to the pictures in my head is a problem for me.

With multiple ways I know I have no correct route. Only if I'm sad enough (which I am) to use a mapping website do I see which is shortest, although it doesn't make me use that way all the time

In larger cities the shortest is not necessarily the quickest because every one else is going the same way. There are times I find slightly longer routes to be quicker simply because there is less traffic, or fewer signals, fewer cops ect. . . . .

thinking spatially. .. .ahh that at last comes to use! ya!

that makes so much sense, therapuetically, as well. . . (nice post, Vhan)

ok, in Yoga, there is a purpose to make space, especially around Solar Plexus, another mind portion of body-mind. . there is brain and there is solar-plexus. . . ok?

so, , hehehe, creating space, in mind, is thinking spatially. .. .

what is outside-also inside, unification, peace, and of course fun

nice nice nice

Huh - this is all a surprise to me. Based on the reading I have done, I was under the impression that a common ADD symptom was a lack of sense of direction, getting lost easily, poor spatial orientation, etc.

I have a lot of trouble with finding my way around, inside buildings and while driving, even in areas I am familiar with. I have no sense of direction at all - tell me north and you might as well be speaking gibberish. I am not good at right and left either.

I do remember landmarks clearly, but I don't necessarily remember where they are in orientation to where I am trying to go or in what order they should appear on my route. So, even if I see a familiar landmark, like the white house with red trim, I don't know if I should look for the green house with the dog house out front next, or if I should have passed it already. When I reach an intersection with a familiar landmark on the corner, I don't know if I need to turn away from it or toward it. So, I get lost all the time, even going to places I have been several times before.

I have to follow the same routine every time or risk ending up who knows where! A detour for road construction can be catastrophe!

I get lost inside buildings too. Disorientation is just a normal feeling for me.

The funny thing is that I am pretty good with spatial orientation in 2 dimensions. I was good at geometry and I always scored high on aptitude tests for spatial relationships (because of course, those tests are performed on paper, not by following me around physically while I try to figure out where I'm going!). After one such test, the school counselor recommended I consider architecture as a career path, and I seriously considered it. I took a drafting class and excelled in it. But, can't you just picture an architect who gets lost inside the buildings she designed herself? I can! Ha!

I can read a map just fine, but I have to keep turning it so that what ever direction I am going is always at the top. When I turn "west" I turn the map so that the top of the map is west, and so on.

The funny thing is that I am pretty good with spatial orientation in 2 dimensions. I was good at geometry and I always scored high on aptitude tests for spatial relationships (because of course, those tests are performed on paper, not by following me around physically while I try to figure out where I'm going!).

Wow I have the opposite problem which is translating the picture inside of my head into a 2D realm, and the 3D computer programs like on Auto-Cad I haven't worked with enough to be able to use them and hold onto the picture in my head. . . .and I sucked at geometry.


I can read a map just fine, but I have to keep turning it so that what ever direction I am going is always at the top. When I turn "west" I turn the map so that the top of the map is west, and so on.


This sounds like Gary and those pics that are side ways. . . .he can't flip them the right way in his head. If a picture is side ways I can turn it the right way inside of my head and see what I need to.

He is better at communicating directions than I am. Even when I am in the car with him if he is driving I have a hard time telling him how to get some where but I can drive there myself just fine. . . .often having more route than one. I am able to get around better if I don't over think it. For some reason if I try to over think where I am going I am more apt to get lost then if I drive kind of on auto poliet.

Gary and I are both ADD but our directional systems are very different.