Getting lost in school/on paper round/in car

I sometimes get really disorientated, other times I have a map stamped onto my brain. If something first makes me go a bit wrong then I can't reset the internal compass 

I often have a nightmare that I'm arriving at a new school or college, about to start a course. Then I suddenly panic and think 'what will I do for money?'... 'have i left my job or are they expecting me today?' 'where am I sleeping tonight?' 

This is very familiar to me, and just as Robert mentioned, I too experience the very same kind of repeating and regular dreams/nightmares. Had one again, just last night, and they are VERY regular. I can never find my way home in the dreams. My thoughts on it are that, as the essence of being autistic involves that our "Sense of Self" is referenced to settings, people, places, some of us, more than others learn to cope better in life with extending our comfort zones, and managing outside of the known and familiar places, we're used to. I experience even today, the same as you. I'm Aspie, a high functioning woman, who has managed to run a business on her own, working in the autism/childcare field, but can only function well without losing my way, if things remain more or less the same. I drive but need to be shown how to get from any new place I've not been before from A to B, physically, or my anxiety rises, and this can bring on panic almost, when I lose my way.  eg when they closed a road I was used to taking regularly for Uni in the past, I fell apart trying to get home again. Had to pull over and breathe, phone for assistance and instruction. This was a time prior to the GPS. They say that the Self can essentially disintegrate, and that's how it feels for me, when I'm out of my comfort zone. I have no doubt that we are "referenced", which seems to be the root cause of this issue.

Hi Plectrum, sorry about the bad day, I have been emotional too.

My schools were different, we kept everything in bag and carried it round all over....

My mother had that ability to remember as you describe the large amounts of data, tables etc. that seems to be quite common within the spectrum, sadly I don't have that.... I hope you are feeling better.

Hi

I have a good memory of data, so as long as it was in print, I could memorise the 2-week school timetable and locations. I always knew where the next lesson was,  but despite that, I was never ready to "shoot off" as you say. I remember it needed time to pick up my things and whatever text books I needed, and sometimes I needed text books for 2 lessons in a row before returning to my classroom. Somehow everyone was always ready except me. I was nearly always the last one to leave the classroom and then I would get hyper-anxious in case I was the last one to arrive at the next or I arrived without something important.

We had these old flip-top desks with a chamber for books and belongings.  The worst thing was realising I didn't have one of the text books I needed, the shame of having to knock on the door and ask to get something from my desk, and be ridiculed by a teacher and a whole class, then have to arrive at my lesson late due to the extra journey, and be ridiculed all over again,  is something I'll never forget. 

If there was a day with no double lessons, I would need up to 7 sets of books, those days made me want to weep. 

Sorry if I've gone off your topic, but it kind of helped me to get this out. I'm having a low day and the tears aren't far away.

That must be horrible Robert, my son had phases of that.

I am reading that what I have could be some form of dyslexia

This sounds very much like my regular /repeating nightmares. 

Real life turns out to be better and more boring, but when I sleep, I constantly have these dreams of forgetting where I am,  being lost in never ending streets or towns, trying to find my way to class and having no idea which room I should be in.  It really gets to me.