It is important that you try and be positive and stay positive about your dyslexia. The more positive you are the quicker and easier it will be to overcome the difficulties that you may be experiencing. A positive mindset helps when tackling any ‘difficulty’ in life as the ‘difficulty’ becomes a ‘challenge’ rather than a ‘problem’ that you are trying to overcome. Challenges can be fun whereas ‘problems’ generally tend not to be.
For instance, seeing reading ‘difficulties’ as a ‘challenge’ to overcome means that you will most probably do more reading each day in an attempt to improve your reading skills. Whereas, by seeing reading ‘difficulties’ as a ‘problem’ will most likely reduce the amount of reading that you do or stop you from reading all together. If you are serious about overcoming dyslexia, then having a positive attitude makes this task that much easier.
We realise that, in many cases, having a positive mind set towards dyslexia, is easier said than done. For some dyslexics (Antonio was one of them) they go through a stage of being quite negative about being dyslexic. This is particularly the case for many ‘late arrivals’ to the dyslexic club who are trying to make sense not only of their new found ‘problem’ but also of all the ‘failures’ in their lives that they now see may have been connected to their dyslexia.
For example, some ‘late arrivals’ look back over there school years and feel resentment for being let down by the educational system. They feel angry that their dyslexia was not spotted and their needs having not been met. Others may feel the anguish of having been wrongly judged or labeled as ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ by friends and family. Whilst some people become depressed, feeling that they could have made more out of their lives if they had known earlier that they are dyslexic. In such cases it is neither easy nor realistic to expect that people will suddenly switch off their negative feelings and thinking towards dyslexia.
What you can do to lessen negativity around dyslexia
If you are feeling negative about your dyslexia you might find Bees-Knees exercise 3 helpful to reduce some of your negative feelings. You might also find that this exercise helps you to move a bit closer to how you would ideally like your situation regarding dyslexia to be. You will find the instructions for Bees-Knees exercise 3 by clicking on ‘Bees-Knees exercises’ on the menu bar to the left of this page.
(Please note that there is no substitute for professional help from a qualified counselor or psychotherapist specialised in dealing with the more serious issues faced by some dyslexic people).
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