

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.












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.