Dyslexia often makes people feel frustrated, anxious, embarrassed, and have low self-esteem, stemming from difficulties with tasks others find easy, leading to stress, confusion, and a sense of being "stupid" despite their intelligence, and can result in social withdrawal or even depression. They might feel overwhelmed and exhausted by reading, struggle to find the right words, and fear public mistakes, creating a cycle of negative emotions and self-doubt.
Although most children with dyslexia are not depressed, they are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain. Perhaps because of their low self-esteem, children with dyslexia are often afraid to turn their anger toward their environment and instead turn it toward themselves, which can result in depression.
Visual Distortions: Real Examples of Reading with Dyslexia
While trying to process language, people with dyslexia may experience any or all of the following: Text blurring and sentences going out of focus. Wide gaps between words or phrases. Bunched text that appears to be in groups.
Rather than being a sequential thinker going from one idea to the next, many dyslexics thrive in environment that allow and foster simultaneous thinking in which ideas are connected via different routes than a straight line.
Children with dyslexia have negative emotions on self-image, peer and family relationships, and social interaction. As for social interaction, children with dyslexia lack social skills due to pressure or low self-esteem, and they have many problems with social adaptive behaviors and personality.
Behavior, Health, and Personality:
May have a short fuse or is easily frustrated, angered, or annoyed. Easily stressed and overwhelmed in certain situations. Low self-esteem. Self-conscious when speaking in a group.
Famous actors like Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom all have dyslexia. Pablo Picasso's teachers described him as “having difficulty differentiating the orientation of letters”.
Dyslexic individuals often excel in creative fields like art, design and storytelling. Our brains are wired to think visually, making us great at generating unique ideas and seeing connections where others might not.
Some common dyslexia symptoms in teens and adults include:
Previously, we found children with dyslexia exhibited heightened emotional reactivity, which correlated with better social skills. Whether emotional differences in dyslexia extend to the parasympathetic nervous system—an autonomic branch critical for attention, social engagement, and empathy—is unknown.
Have difficulty with personal organisation, time management and prioritising tasks. Avoid certain types of work or study. Find some tasks really easy but unexpectedly challenged by others. Have poor self-esteem, especially if dyslexic difficulties have not been identified in earlier life.
Yes, trauma – both physical and emotional – have been cited in potentially causing the onset of dyslexia. Trauma Dyslexia, also commonly referred to as acquired dyslexia, can develop after a person has experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as a fall from a ladder, a car accident, a sports injury, etc.
Establish a routine
Dyslexic learners may find it difficult to maintain concentration for long periods of time and may get tired quickly, so it's a good idea to create a routine which emphasises 'a little and often' rather than trying to squeeze too much work into a longer session.
Although dyslexia is not an emotional disorder, it can lead to feelings of anxiety, anger, low self-esteem and depression. Anxiety is the emotional symptom that adults with dyslexia experience the most.
Gray matter is largely responsible for processing information and is mostly composed of nerve cells. The less gray matter in this particular area may affect how dyslexic individuals process the different sounds of language (phonemic awareness). The decrease in white matter may impact reading and processing.
When they are tired their dyslexic 'symptoms' can be more pronounced as they don't have the energy to employ their usual coping strategies.
by Annie Hitchman. The biggest lesson I've learned is that being dyslexic is so much more than struggling with reading and writing. Being dyslexic means that you think and process information on the right side of your brain, instead of the left side, where neurotypical people think.
General signs to look for are:
No, dyslexia is not a form of ADHD; they are separate neurodevelopmental conditions, but they often co-occur (comorbid) because they share some symptoms like attention issues and can affect similar brain functions, though their core problems differ: dyslexia is a language-based learning disorder, while ADHD involves inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Many people have both, making proper assessment crucial for targeted support, as dyslexia impacts reading/language processing, while ADHD broadly affects executive functions like focus and self-regulation.
He suggests that because people with dyslexia don't tend to memorise information in traditional ways, their brains may be 'wired' to be more flexible and imaginative in all kinds of situations.
Research by the University of Strathclyde has found that people with dyslexia are much better at being curious and exploring new ideas and more likely to be found in careers where this is an advantage, such as art, media, architecture, creativity, engineering and inventing things!
Dyslexic people may have difficulty processing and remembering information they see and hear, which can affect learning and the acquisition of literacy skills. Dyslexia can also impact on other areas such as organisational skills. It is important to remember that there are positives to thinking differently.
Ryan Gosling has accumulated praise for movies like The Notebook, La La Land, and Barbie. However, behind this fame, his life's story was full of bravery. The Hollywood hunk faced dyslexia and Adhd as a kid. School was difficult, and bullying made it worse.
Actress Jennifer Aniston has publicly shared that she was diagnosed with dyslexia in her 20s, a diagnosis that explained lifelong struggles with reading, writing, and retaining information, leading her to believe she wasn't smart until discovering the learning disorder. She discovered this during an eye exam, where she realized her eyes jumped words when reading, and the diagnosis helped her understand past difficulties, transforming her self-perception.
Sir Richard Branson, head of Virgin, who made his first million by the age of 18 after founding a record label, is a classic example of the successful dyslexic. Branson, a billionaire, admits he did not understand the difference between net and gross profit until it was explained to him three years ago.