Mental maps

[Cassandra65]

Hi everyone.
I was born in the UK, emigrated to Australia in 1998, moved back to the same UK town in 2016 to care for my elderly parents, and recently moved back to my house Australia in May.
I've discovered that I have a mental map of where I am in the world, but I can only hold on to one map at a time. It's all unconsciously/subconsciously created - I've never deliberately made a mental map. I had to re-learn my way around the town I grew up in when I returned to the UK, as well as re-learn that part of the country (e.g. I'd still know that certain towns were to the south of me, but not remember which order they were in as you travelled south). Now I'm having to relearn my way around the town I've just returned to. It's disconcerting for me not being able to immediately place my own whereabouts on my mental map!
My question is this: is this mental map scenario unique to me, is it a ND thing, or does everyone do/have it?
(This is actually my question about SO many things! But we'll stick to this one for now lol)

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I use mental maps all the time even in the bush. My wife using GPS drives me nuts.

 

[Outdated]

I rely heavily on my own internal map and I've never used a GPS in my life. I'm in a similar situation to you at the moment having moved back to Adelaide after being away for nearly 30 years. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Adelaide and I knew that side of the city like the back of my hand, but now I'm living in the southern suburbs and it's an area I don't know very much at all.

I've been back in Adelaide for 5 years now but only bought a car a couple of weeks ago. So for 5 years I had a mental map building up based on my transport options, bus train or bike. None of that gives you the same sort of map as you need when driving so I'm building up my internal map all over again.

Two quick questions:
Are you glad to be back?
What happened with your camper van in the end?

 

[Cassandra65]

I rely heavily on my own internal map and I've never used a GPS in my life. I'm in a similar situation to you at the moment having moved back to Adelaide after being away for nearly 30 years. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Adelaide and I knew that side of the city like the back of my hand, but now I'm living in the southern suburbs and it's an area I don't know very much at all.

I've been back in Adelaide for 5 years now but only bought a car a couple of weeks ago. So for 5 years I had a mental map building up based on my transport options, bus train or bike. None of that gives you the same sort of map as you need when driving so I'm building up my internal map all over again.

Two quick questions:
Are you glad to be back?
What happened with your camper van in the end?

Defo glad to be back, in spite of all sorts of dramas and issues to deal with here!
Van was stolen by a 'friend' who never paid a penny for it.

 

[Outdated]

Sorry to hear about the van. One way of looking at it is that you were struggling to find a buyer for it and would probably have lost out in the end anyway, not that that in any way excuses the actions of the "friend".

I hope things settle back down for you soon and you can get back to the life you wanted.

 

[SusanLR]

I never use a GPS and joke that I have a built-in GPS of my own.
Always aware of sense of directions.
Now with Google maps, I've become lazy and if I'm going somewhere I'm not familiar with I plan a route from them.
Before using my PC in this manner, starting several years ago, I never got lost though.
For long road trips, I miss the old paper maps.