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Am I dyslexic ?

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December 15th, 2009
First off I want to thatnk all of the doctors and experts that answer questions on this site. It is great someone can come here for help. You shuould be commended for taking time to help.

I am 30 years old and in overall very good health. I have strong concern that I am dislexic. I belive I benefit from the advantages of right brain thinking and alos the disadvantages. I will list my strength and weeknesses below:

I am ambidextrous and have a hard time diserning left from right

Often find solutions to engineering problems faster than anyone else and dont know how, just sort of pops in my head

I ahve a fairly high i.q. 125-135 but am terrible at advanced algebra and word problems (even high school level)

can do basic math in my head much, much faster than on paper

I often wake wiht vertigo and headaches, even when hydrated

often read sentences over and over

can read a page of a book and only remember the first or last sentence

sometimes it takes me 4 or 5 tries to fill out a form like at a doctors office or making out a check

iam very bad with driving dierections, have got lost for hours, even with mapquest

am fairly athletic but sometimes just loose my balance or feel disoriented when playing sports

sometimes when i am writing (on paper) i will start with the second letter of word I am attempting to write

I was always in the top of my math classes (with out studying) until i got to alebra and then i could barely get Cs and Ds no matter how hard i tried

My mother has always said she is dislexic, she has to verbally repeat numbers or addresses 2 or 3 times when taking dictations. I beleive whatever I have is both a gift and a curse. My main concern is the waking with dissorientaiton, dizziness etc. Is this connected to my possible dislexia and how?

Thanks again,
Jake
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replied December 15th, 2009
Hello Jake.

You sure have some symptoms suggestive of Learning Disability / Difficulty, not necessarily Dyslexia. Dyslexia, if you know, is just one type of a larger group of conditions called Learning Disabilities. They may also be called Specific Learning Disabilities (SpLD) if specific reading, writing or mathematical problems are encountered. Accordingly they are called Dyslexia, Dysgraphia or Dyscalculia.

There is, however, another variety of LD, known as Non-verbal Learning Disability (NVLD). I would encourage you to read more about NVLD and other types of LD in your free time.

Since you have mentioned that your mother also think she has dyslexia, I am tempted to think that your symptoms are indeed fitting in the Dyslexia and NVLD categories, but I will avoid diagnosing you here. And it will also not be appropriate to think of any diagnosis without appropriate evaluative tests. A characteristic feature of persons with LD is that they may have a normal or above normal intelligence, which applies to you.

There is no evidence to show that feeling dizziness and disoriented on waking up is linked to dyslexia or any of the LDs. You may have to check if you follow a good sleep routine, sleep hygiene and have adequate sleep.

While LD turns out to be a gift to many, it is definitely not a curse. And there is no reason for you to get disturbed by your apparent shortcomings. Avoid making any judgments about yourself and your abilities when you commit some mistake in writing or lose your way on the road, etc. It is part of a normal and healthy life. Nature wants us to be perfect in some aspects and make mistakes in some, so that we grow to be better than we were yesterday.

Just make sure you take efforts and try to improve upon some things which you need for your day to day functioning. If reading is part of your work / life, then you might start forming a habit of taking notes as you read. This way, you won't waste your reading efforts and you won’t have to burden the brain with the task of remembering each and every small detail.

I can only write this much here. I hope this was helpful to you.

Regards

This post is for the purpose of providing medical information and is not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a doctor. This post is not intended to give or rule out a diagnosis, create a doctor-patient relationship or replace an existing one.



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