Ever forgot where you were going when driving? Or forgot how you got somewhere?
By wotfpatty
@wotfpatty (2065)
United States
September 20, 2007 4:02am CST
I don't know if I am alone in this or not but wanted to find out. A few years ago, I was driving along a pretty well known stretch of road at night when, suddenly, I forgot where I was. I mean, all of the sudden, nothing looked familiar. I pulled over because my heart was racing (I have anxiety) and I sat there thinking to myself, "Where the heck was I going?"
Now I know people get road hypnosis but this was different. It took about five minutes of calming myself down to realize I was on a stretch of road I had driven several times. I don't know if the night lights caused it or I was thinking about 100 things and just sort of was driving without thinking or what. I continued on and was fine.
But that scared me! It has not happened again but how could someone just FORGET where she was when driving? I mean, I knew the place was familiar, I just didn't know where the heck I was going for a few minutes until my mind cleared. Like I said I do suffer from anxiety and, when I drive, I do tend to think and think and THINK and maybe I was just off in lala land (not too safe!) and snapped to and was disoriented or something.
I actually told my doctor about it and asked it it was a seizure and he thought I was crazy. He said it happens to him too. It is when you have a lot on your mind and are not paying attention and that I should turn off the radio and concentrate on where I am going rather than allow myself to be distracted. He also thought I must have been anxious about something.
But still. Ew. Has anything remotely similar every happened to you? Have you ever suddenly forgot where you were going or got where you were going and didn't remember how you got there? That's weird too and has happened to me before. I must drive like a robot!
7 people like this
20 responses
@dreamy1 (3811)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Nope can't say that I've never forgot where I was going. I've certainly forgot how to get to where I was going and make a wrong turn but I knew where I was going. In the house I will forget what I was going to do next but can't say I forgot where I was driving to.
5 people like this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
I sometimes forget things in the house but not too often. I am very glad that never happened again while driving. If it did, I would probably not drive again. Too scary for me.
I have ended up at my destination and thought wow, that was fast. I barely remembered driving there. Again, that is me and my thinking mind while my eyes and hands drive. I have never been in accident when I drove though and I was 16 when I started driving and am 43 now so I think God for that!
2 people like this
@dreamjapan (409)
• Japan
20 Sep 07
I don't drive so that has never happened to me but at home I'll go into a room for something and forget why. One day I went up stairs about 10 times before I figured out what I needed from upstairs! I think it has to do with not being in the moment. Even as I write this I am cooking dinner, planning what to teach the kids who come for English lessons and talking to my five year old. Sometimes we need to slow down and focus on what we are doing!
Take care and hope you don't have any more scary episodes!
3 people like this
@dreamjapan (409)
• Japan
21 Sep 07
Have you tried to meditate?
I've tried but it doesn't work for me, to many thoughts at one time! But from what I have read being able to calm oneself and breathe really helps.
Maybe I should try again!
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
I do that at home. I get all the way upstairs and stand there wondering what the heck I wanted up there. I think that is common. I just didn't like the fact that I was lost while driving. Just for a couple of minutes but enough to scare the heck out of me. My brain never shuts up and is always thinking so I think I was just anxious and thinking too much. I wonder how to shut my head up?
2 people like this
@CinderInMySoul (4717)
• United States
20 Sep 07
whoa, that would scare the crap outta me! certainly dangerous.
like the person above said, ive forgotten how to get somewhere..and for that matter get to whatever store im headed for and completly forgot why i wanted to go there in the first place. but ive never been driving and just suddenly not know where i am.
while driving at night i have once or twice not recognized my exact location on the road, but i still knew what road i was on.
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
It was scary but I knew I was on a street I was on before, I just for a minute didn't know where the heck I was going. At that time, I drove a lot and I think I was always rushing like crazy and maybe I just was so distracted that...
Sigh. I don't know. It sure was weird. GLAD it never happened again!
2 people like this
@jcyap888 (721)
• Philippines
20 Sep 07
yes i had this experience too, going to a place where i always go, and suddenly why i forget where i'm going i pass thru the place i'm going then i drove back.
another is when i'm travelling to a place past midnight its been 10 hours drive to another province from north to south i must pass this mountain for short cut, when i'm up there it seem that i pass the place again and again still the same place and area. there something wrong or someone has been playing with me at that mountain area. i'm so afraid and very dark. i pray then the area clear me straight to where i'm going. almost takes me an hour in that place.
2 people like this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Oh yeah that is scary. I don't even know if I would drive in a place like that. I have been on trips where it seemed like we were going around and around and ending up at the same place and that was so weird. I swear I saw the exact same things a few miles back and then again and again. But apparently not because we end up where we are going.
A 10 hour trip would make anyone's mind play tricks on them. Good luck when you go back through that mountain area!
1 person likes this
@alamode (3071)
• United States
20 Sep 07
I don't drive, so its not a problem I have, but I do sleep in the car and wake up very disoriented, especially if Hun has decided to take a side trip on the way home.
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Oh I hate that! We went to Baltimore from New York a few months ago and I try not to sleep because I feel like I have to drive on the passenger side when my husband drives (heheh) but I did doze off and I totally was screwed up when I woke up. I had to know exactly where we were because it didn't look familiar and we had taken the same route dozens of times yet nothing looked familiar. He had taken a different route that ONE time, ugh. I hate that disoriented feeling.
2 people like this
@Sheribabe (445)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Don't feel bad, I'd walk in a room and forget why I went in there. And some other things became too noticeable to ignore...and it started to bother me ...
I actually wondered at one time if medications I had been taking had been affecting/effecting my memory. I'd hated to think my memory was going as such a young age... There's no WAY!!!
I told my doctor too and she gave me a mediation that is like a vitamin called cerefolin. They cost a forture but ask your doctor about them and see if you could get some samples, if he agrees they could help. My doctor gives me samples. It turned out I was right, my migraine meds were doing just that...
@Sheribabe (445)
• United States
21 Sep 07
The medicene is suppose to prevent me from getting really bad migraines. It's called "TOPAMAX". It's not for when you get a migraine it's suppose to keep them from happening. They help cuz I haven't had one as bad as the one I had that put me in the hospital.
I hope that helps...
1 person likes this
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
20 Sep 07
i didn't drive and always use public transport whenever i have to go anywhere... i have ever experience something similar like you... i walk on the road that i frequently walk before but suddenly i just forgotten where i am and everything seems so unfamiliar... i straight away stop, try to calm down, look around the surrounding to realise that it is just the ordinary road that i usually pass-by and keep on walking... but it really scares me for a moment... i am an anxious person like you are and i get panicked quite easily...
1 person likes this
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
20 Sep 07
I do this sometimes. i am paying attention to the road but not to where I am going, and then I end up going to the wrong place. Like I'll go toward my Tuesday appointment instead of my Thursday one, because they have similar routes. Or if I'm near my parents' place, I'll go there instead of where I'm heading, just out of habit.
2 people like this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
21 Sep 07
My husband does that all the time. Whenever we go to the north side of town he automatically drives to my parents' old house because he used to go there so much. I always have to remind him where we are going. I guess people drive to places out of habit after a while.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
21 Sep 07
I do not drive, but sometimes I forget where I am especially if I come from a different direction. Also when we moved to our city, we moved to a place that was the same distance to the school as it was in my old city, so I sometimes think that I am at my old place instead of my new place.
This usually happens when I am thinking of something else and is the same as when I called my older son by my brother's name because they did look alike at the same age.
1 person likes this
@candiec2005 (828)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Yes this has happened to me before; more times than I care to admit. Of course, I wasn't exactly coherent if you know what I mean, lol. Oh, I once got lost around the corner of my house. And I was completely coherent! Isn't that crazy? But in my defense, I read somewhere that the same thing happened to Einstein. He once got lost around the corner of his house once as well. So you see, it happens to the best of us.
2 people like this
@pismeof (855)
• United States
20 Sep 07
I don't find driving on familiar roads to a destination and not thinking about how you got there that unusual.
If your headed somewhere you've been a million times on streets you've driven a million times it is quite easy to let your mind drift to other matters.
Whether or not it actually effects the attention you give to the traffic awareness or not I couldn't say.
I do now that I've found myself in similar situations a number of times but, don't think it actual interfered with the safety aspect of the driving.
2 people like this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
21 Sep 07
I think part of our brain is on the alert because I have never gotten in an accident even when I was way out there thinking of 100 things or singing to the radio and not even thinking about driving. I do think we are on alert and ready if we have to be. My husband is always distracted but, when he has to be, he is totally able to divert any sort of driving problem. Weird how our brains work, huh?
Thanks for the reply :)
1 person likes this
@raychill (6525)
• United States
20 Sep 07
This has happened to me a few times. Actually. See, I can drive somewhere all the time during the day but when I go there at night it's like somewhere I've never been before... and vice versa. It's really scary because I'll start freaking out because I don't know where I am even though I've been there a bajillion times before. It's like I'm lost. This isn't completely the same, but similar.
I have also gotten in the car to drive somewhere and started driving and having NO clue whatsoever where I was going. It's really scary. I also get anxiety attacks in the car, mainly if I'm stuck in traffic. So I've learned how to calm myself down and stuff.
It's definitely a scary experience.
1 person likes this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Yeah I have ended up where I was going and barely remembered getting there. My husband says it happens to him all the time. What a weired (and scary) thing that we can drive yet be somewhere else at the same time!
1 person likes this
@Gizmo6177 (77)
• Canada
20 Sep 07
Yes, I know where you are coming from. I have had that happen to me many of times. I would be heading into town and I know that I have alot of errands to run and then I am going over everything in my head and then, Whamo!!! I'm at a red light and thinking to myself....what am I doing here? Or why am I here? Then it takes a few seconds to kick in as to what I am doing again. It's just like forgetting where you park your vehicle after you run in the mall. Your mind is so preoccupied that you forget to look back and make sure that you know where you have parked!! You're not alone wolfpatty!!!
2 people like this
@wotfpatty (2065)
• United States
21 Sep 07
Oh, we always forget where we park the car! I remember when I was a kid, my father would put an empty soda can on his antenna so he could see it in a sea of cars and know where he was parked. lol.
Yeah, I think it is just that our minds are in overdrive (no pun intended) and we not totally paying attention to what we are doing.That is a scary thought but I have never been in accident while I was driving so part of my brain is on the road. The rest is somewhere else.
1 person likes this
@sherrir101 (3670)
• Malinta, Ohio
21 Sep 07
My mom, an aunt and I got into this conversation a few weeks ago. We were going to a family reunion and mom suddenly said "I don't remember driving through Springville". It started a whole conversation about driving and forgeting. It must be repitition. Because she's been driving that stretch of road for 50 years. LOL
@AmbiePam (92719)
• United States
20 Sep 07
Yeah, I've done that. I think most everyone has. The last place I worked, that would often happen to me on my way home. I'd get home and couldn't for the life of me remember how I got there. There were a couple ways to get home from my work, but there was no way I could remember which route I took.
1 person likes this
@balasundaram (297)
• India
21 Sep 07
Ya sometimes when I'm involved in deep thinking while driving I forget where to go.when i'm bored sitting in home i drive somewhere dont know where to go
@singlepixel (2743)
•
21 Sep 07
hi Pat!
well, usually I plan where to go before even thinking of getting the car key. I have to make up my mind of the intended travel because losing direction while driving means a waste of time and definitely a waste of fuel. so far, it worked fine. i can even plan to go home when I'm drunk!..lol..
the only trouble is, i have to avoid any police road block, just in case!..ha ha ha..
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
21 Sep 07
Yes, when I am very overtired and have lots on my mind I have done things like that. One morning, a few years ago my girls missed their bus. I work 2nd shift and they woke me for a ride. I jumped up from bed and not fully awake, I ran to the car and drove them to school. I proceeded from the school towards my job which is out of town. I was half way there when I suddenly came to life and realized i was barefoot and in my pjs and what in the heck was I doing? i felt like an idiot! When my oldest girl had her first child...same thing. She was in a hospital miles away and each nite after work I drove to be with her. A few nites of that and I was so overtired and so concerned as it was a troubled pregnancy that one nite i just drove and drove and ended up in some strange town miles off the beaten path. it was a route i knew well so there was no good excuse.I have learned from experience that when I have a lot going on in my life that I have to take extra care to pay attention behind the wheel. It is very easy to get on a road we know well and let our minds drift to problems of the day etc. I don't think you are crazy, i think you had way too much on your mind.
@chris57455 (283)
• United States
21 Sep 07
that happens to be alot. But it usually takes me just a few minutes to remember.
