Are Dyslexia and Mental Health Linked?

The thought that dyslexia and mental health could be linked would never have crossed my mind if I wasn’t tested for dyslexia, or if I hadn’t gone down the NLP journey. But when I was tested, things began to click into place, and I began to recognise that I had mental health issues and have done for much of my life.

How I got into NLP was through my Dad and his wife; After seeing first-hand how positively affected them, I became instantly curious about it. This to me was the journey to understanding the way the brain works, how to manage mental health with NLP, (and other supporting techniques), and simplifying and clarifying goals easily. This is when I discovered more about my passions, which included: dyslexia and mental health. 

“The thought that dyslexia and mental health could be linked first became apparent when I notice that most of the people I knew with dyslexia also had problems, or episodes of poor mental health.” Why? Is it because of direct negative experiences as dyslexic? Is it to do with the way we are wired differently? Or perhaps even a combination?

I began to question this more and more as time went on. 

There’s evidence that suggests that these conditions go hand in hand. I have in the past had many discussions with other dyslexic’s about this topic, and they agree that there is a huge percentage of people who have both conditions. My friend Richard has even set up his own Facebook page dedicated to dyslexia and mental health because it’s a seemingly a big correlation.

“Another correlation that I have found is that many people I personally know with dyslexia are in fact also huge empathetic and caring people, often being incredibly sensitive compared to the average person.”

Of course, logically I wonder is this linked to why a lot of us are prone to mental health issues like: depression and anxiety. For me, I think it could be contributing factor.

Either way if you do have any metal health that is causing you harm and difficulties and want to maintain a balance within your head or take more control of the situation, I first recommend seeking professional help always. Whilst waiting for that help, and/or during I’ve recommend a few things to have a go at or think about.  

Find someone you can talk to, without judgement or biased opinions:

Whether that’s a professional or someone you know, make sure they are going to be completely free from judgements, opinions and going to be trusted to keep your discussion confidential.( For guarantee see a professional who are under ethical oath of keeping your sessions completely confidential).

Resist the urge to try to ignore yourself: 

Your problems or those little voices in your head which are nattering away are good. Those feelings, problems and voices are real and they have a positive intention behind them to help you get what you want. Listen, be thankful for their input, ask lots of questions to discover its TRUE intentions. (full process to be accessible on The Dyslexia Coach website soon). 

Know your triggers that provoke metal health episodes: 

Know how you can avoid those triggers and how to manage them if you haven’t been successful in avoiding the trigger. If you can’t always avoid them don’t worry, it happens, just know how to get back to your safe place again. 

So to answer the question, is dyslexia and mental health linked in some way? There is some evidence to suggests there is and from my own experiences I definitely think they are two conditions that come together a lot in my opinion. Regardless if you have any neurodivergence with mental health or just mental health, these steps apply and will help everyone.