Jody from Canada asks – My question is regarding dyslexia and imposter syndrome.
I recently found out (by pure chance) that there is a very high probability that I am dyslexic… although my wife thought it was obvious and thought always knew.
I don’t have an official diagnosis because it costs several thousand dollars in Canada, but I’ve done what seems like 100 online tests and I nail them all. Top of the class.
Since discovering my dyslexia and understanding what it is/does, my life has taken a surprisingly damatic and fast turn for the better. Yet still, I find periods where, without a diagnosis, I doubt my dyslexia… like, no I’m not dyslexic because of x,y,z.
1) I was very good at school… when actually, I was good at certain subjects and benefited from absent teachers in English, geography, and languages.
2) the “elephant” question in dyslexia tests. I always answer no, because I don’t have trouble writing that word. But when I get to spelling helicopter, or hippopotamus… forget about it. Sometimes when auto-fill does not know what I’m trying to say it feels like I’m alone in a large empty room, randomly typing in guess letters until auto-fill throws me a life line.
There’s more, but despite all this I am constantly doubtful about my dyslexia. It’s causing me to fear “coming out” as a dyslexic in fear of being outded as a hypochondriac. I also have a serious fear of actually finding out I’m not dyslexic and losing my super power. It’s a lot of ups and downs.
I’ve looked it up and can’t find anyone talking about doubting their dyslexia, so I guess my question is… is this a normal feeling? Does it go away?
