My struggles with Dyslexia

Today I read this Dyslexia and imagination and thought I should write about my own experience. To get a taste of what it's like to have Dyslexia, try this website. You'll get a sense of why it's hard to read and focus while reading when you have Dyslexia.

Note: Letters don't jump around for me like on the example website, but words at times do look jumbled up or "hard to read." As you'll see towards the end of this post, memorization becomes something you lean on a great deal to compensate for Dyslexia.

Growing up, I didn't know I had Dyslexia and not knowing I had it, made things annoying. Here's my story. Hopefully, I won't tell it backwards.

Dyslexia - That confused look you have when get an F on a test but the score clearly reads 93! To everyone else, you failed with a 39.

I remember in the 5th grade getting a zero on a spelling test. Yes, a zero followed by an indefinite number of zeros. Not only did this make me feel embarrassed, but I had no clue what went wrong. To address this on the next test, I decided to cheat off a friend. Sadly, my friend couldn't spell either, and we both failed, only getting 4 out of 20 right.

Life Lesson: if you're going to cheat, at least have smart friends.

It wasn't only until later in life that I had a clue that I was struggling with Dyslexia. There seemed to be a pattern to when these signs would surface. Ask me to dial a phone number, and it would take at least 3 to 4 attempts to get it right. Not to mention a lot of confused and pissed people asking why I keep calling them. When I would say the numbers out loud, I would almost without fail, shuffle a few numbers up unknowingly. When you corrected me, I would hear those numbers shuffled up again and start to accuse you of playing a prank. 

Okay, so this ruled out any chance of being some mathematical savant, but it didn't make me aware of what I was struggling with Dyslexia.

I started to compensate by learning patterns and associations. It was my method to deal with Dyslexia. When it comes to remembering numbers, I will break them up into groups of two and then associate those numbers to various things. e.g., 27 is my birthday, 49 San Fran, 88 would be 2x4 (Two 4's doubled), etc. and I would tell a story.

274988 would be "On my birthday in San Fran I got a 2x4".

I wasn't aware, but later I discovered this happens to be a memorization technique used by people. 

I still struggle with Dyslexia and rely on the above technique and even a Ducktales episode where they talk about the order of "i" and "e"; I before E, except after C. I know, that's pretty said, but anytime I question if it's "ie" or "ei", I have to recall this quote. Why? Well, I don't see the difference. 

The same applies to d and b. I struggle to tell them apart. So how do I know whether it's a "D" (d) or "B" (b)? Don't laugh, but I'll write on down "be" and the match up the letters. Yes, I have to write it down to see it. I know it sounds strange or people watching me do it might think "this grown ass man is stupid!", but I understand that it's something they don't relate to or understand. Hey, when I do it, I think "this shit is stupi... okay, its b! B not D.."

I have so many more tricks to deal with Dyslexia on a daily basis, but it's something I've grown to get used to doing. 

Fun Fact: I also have Prosopagnosia. It is otherwise known as Face blindness. I may write about this in another post.