“How I Trained My Brain to Unleash Wonders My Fingers Couldn’t”
I’m a 58-year-old college professor and I frequently misspell my own name. My handwriting is sloppy and I often can’t find the right word. Despite what I was told as a child, my poor spelling and sloppiness are not a reflection of inferior intelligence or laziness. Indeed, quite the opposite may be true.
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I have adhd (inattentive). All my life – all the classic symptoms. I’m on a number of medicines, and that helps some (Concerta, bupropion, etc.) Poor writing (very poor), terrible printing… most of the things you described in the article on dysgraphia.
But I have one really odd thing that happens that I’ve never seen anyone talk about. I mentioned it to my psychiatrist, my psychologist, and even when I was tested by a neuropsychologist. None of them ever came across it.
Sometimes, not always but often enough to be at least curious, if not terribly concerned, I will type words backwards. There’s no pattern to it – names, places, etc. – and it’s not little words. I can’t think of a specific example right now, but I’ll try to show what I mean.
If, for example, I wanted to type the word “psychologist”. I might type “tsigolohcysp”. I won’t even know it until I’m done and reading over what I wrote. Then I’ll go back to correct it and it will happen again. So I’ll try to be very methodical – repeat the letters I need as I type each one, and although I’ll be saying to myself the letter “P” then “s” etc. slowly through the word – and even then it will happen. I’ll be saying the letter “p” to myself, even look at the keyboard, yet my fingers will go to “t”, for example. It’s like a part of my brain has flip flopped, and it’s in a loop and can’t break out of it. It’s not my computer. It’s random. It usually happens when I am typing quickly (and I’m a fast typist.) Very accurate, usually, and I don’t look at the keyboard – sometimes I’ll even type with my eyes closed so I can visualize my thoughts. It’s like when I’m just letting my words flow out of me, free-thought, I guess.
Anyway, I’ve talked to those professionals (who know me well) about it and they never heard of such a thing. They tell me not to worry. Well, I’m not really worried about it – just wonder what the heck might cause something like that to happen.
Ever heard of that?