Conquering Dyslexia: The Road to Succeeding in Life with the Learning Disability

Dyslexia is a common “syndrome” that people everywhere continue to be forced to either overcome or let it overpower them (Wennas Brante 1). In all actuality, a person with dyslexia does not have to deal with flipped or misjudged letters. Instead the usual difficulty for dyslexics is that reading is much more difficult because words just do not ‘click’. In a way, a dyslexic person deals with learning the word all over again (Gorman 2). Is this Disability Even Conquerable? Can a person with Dyslexia still succeed in life with this disorder? Even If you are a person who is dyslexic, never fall into thinking that you can do nothing about it and will never be able to do anything spectacular with your life; because not only can you overcome this disability, you can succeed and do amazing things, because being dyslexic does not define you.

Dyslexia is not a disease, and because of that, with hard work anyone can break, or at least weaken, the mental chains this reading disorder has on them. Being a syndrome, this disorder can “manifest in various ways in different individuals” (Wennas Brante 1). This means that throughout all the research so far, the cases of dyslexia for people are all different; because it cannot be categorized, there is not a clear cut definition on what dyslexia is, and how it can be fixed. But the popular image of Dyslexia is a difficulty dealing with reading (Doering 100). No matter the severities, or the hardship of what this disorder (which can also affect your spelling and writing skills); a person can work through this, because even though they might have the disorder, it still does not have to define what they are (Gorman 8). “Homework and study”, no matter what article you read every informative guide on this topic has one point in common; the only way to get better, is to work (Wennas Brante 1). The most damaging myth about this disorder is that it can be outgrown! It cannot! Something has to be done about it as soon as it is noticed, and that something is fighting back. (Gorman 2). Being a slow reader, a person can often find their confidence crumble “as they see other students progressing” (3). Imagine this, you are trying to read a textbook, but because you recognizing words is not automatic, you have to “deal with each word you see as if you had never come across it before”, because of this, reading is slow and laborious (5). This is hard, and often time’s people with dyslexia are filled with low academic self-esteem, anxiety with performing tasks, prejudice, and time pressure (Wennas Brante 2). To some people, this burden may look huge and unconquerable. But people who have this disability still have conquered it; they have studied, they have read, they have pushed themselves to the limit and they have succeeded.

There are no quick fixes. “Dyslexic students often have to put many more hours into their course work than naturally skilled readers do. But the results are worth it.” People who have dyslexia learn to persevere (Gorman 6). People with this disorder are not brain damaged, in fact, “Dyslexics… seems to have a distinct advantage when it comes to thinking outside the box” (1). People with dyslexia can and do continue on to higher education, literally the only thing that is stopping a person with this or any disorder is themselves. (Wennas Brante 1) “The creative side of dyselxics’ brains are often very well developed and this, coupled with and unconventional approach to structure, has opened opportunites to dyslexics in these areas” (Doering 102). These areas are artists, scientists, and business exectives! Which “dyslexics are overrepresented in the top ranks of” (Gorman 2). Never believe that because you have dyslexia, you cannot do anything in life, instead remember this, Tom Cruise, Jay Leno, Agatha Christie, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, and Whoopi Goldberg (to name a few) all had (and some still have) dyslexia. And instead of letting the disorder stop them, “in some cases it may have fueled their creative fires” (Gorman7).

So what is stopping you? Who is telling you that because you have this disorder you can’t still do something amazing?