How to deal with problems associated with dyslexia?

Question

I think I might be dyslexic . Here are the reasons why:

• I seem to forget the same words over and over again (don't we all?). I find it difficult to remember names of people after six months (even less at times), it causes a lot of embarrassment.

• I am terrible at pronunciations. I seem to make up pronunciations somehow. This also causes a lot of embarrassments as well.

• I struggle to speak (or put words into mouth) when under slight stress. In ordinary conditions I don't have problem though.

• I was always considered lazy by almost everyone I know even though I don't consider myself lazy.

• I procrastinate a lot even today as an adult.

• I often have to reread text in order to grasp it fully (Don't we all?).

• I found it hard to learn multiplication tables in school, although I was always good in maths (always among the top three in school).

• My spelling is poor (even today). Thanks to the online spell checkers I might not have been able finish this writing at all.

• I used to confuse the letters b and d as a child. I remember I used to write b in special way in order to distinguish it from d.

I am a working professional (software developer actually).

I want to know how deal with these problems so that it does not affect my work life and career.

Answer 1

Very first step is get professionally evaluated. You might be dyslexic, you might be something else, you might be dyslexic and something else. In one of the absolutely best decisions I ever made, I went to a therapist because I thought I was mildly bipolar and it turned out to be ADHD.

Second step, no matter how the evaluation turns out, is to adjust your life to best fit. Follow your doctor's recommendations, read up on whatever you've got, and take notes on what causes you the most trouble. (You've already started that last bit.) Meds can help with some things (I love mine), but lifestyle changes are still important.

As an example, I:

• put my meetings in the morning, when I can best focus on conversations
• pack extra coffee for the big/long/brain-hurty ones
• expect that I'm going to be brain-dead for the rest of the day after any large and/or noisy event (departmental meetings, cons, hail and farewall lunches, etc.)
• always carry a pen and notepad with me
• except for code reviews (where I'm busy scribbling on the packet), always bring knitting to meetings (simple stuff done under the table) so as to keep the kinesthetic part of my brain busy and not distracting the part that's trying to concentrate

I'm also a software developer and the demands of the field are what pushed me to get diagnosed and treated in the first place. It's a pain, but it's worth it, because knowing what's really going on makes efforts to improve one's productivity much more effective and efficient.

Answer 2

It sounds to me that you suffer from a lack of confidence more than anything else. Nearly everything that you have pointed out is very common and are experiences that happen to everyone. Especially things like not remembering names, procrastinating and being nervous talking - there is no one that is not affected by this stuff. It is the way you are handling these thoughts and your inner monologue that is the real problem. For example, I read a lot of technical documents and come up with my own pronunciation of words that I haven't heard anyone use before. Then when I'm talking to someone it often comes about that my pronunciation is vastly different from the accepted norm and people laugh. I laugh along with them - it is funny, and is actually a means of building camaraderie. I imagine that you retreat into your shell and are embarrassed that you've made a mistake in public. You just need to realise that everyone makes mistakes and it isn't the end of the world when you do.

For procrastination and laziness issues there are well established techniques to combat these. Read The Pomodoro Technique which talks about establishing routine and getting over the hump of actually starting to do some work. I wouldn't worry about laziness either. Laziness is actually something I would value in a software developer. The best developers I know are lazy - lazy generally means getting the job done earlier (Laziness is a Virtue)

Overall just don't be so hard on yourself.