Dyslexia (?)

[EthanS]

Hello,

I would want to ask if anyone here noticed this or has an observation. I think there is a connection of some sorts between psychedelics use and developing a mild form of dyslexia (or something similar). I haven't noticed this until some friends pointed it out, that I started writing strange in the sense that I mix up words. Looking into it, I started seeing how, when I'm momentarily not focusing, I'm writing seemingly unrelated words instead of what I mean. Latest example is from earlier today when I wrote an email and wrote 'mysql' instead of 'myself', 'I fell' instead of 'I will' etc. Doesn't really bug me or anything, as when a reread I pretty much catch these things and correct them, but I started wondering why is this happening. And of course, the random inverting of syllables within a word.

Just recently started having the same effect when reading, to the point where I realise the phrase makes no sense and I reread only to see that I read a word like a completely different thing. Kind of made reading the news fun again.

I haven't given it much thought until I started reading the dmt-nexus forum and noticed that quite a lot of people here seem to be doing this kind of unaware substitutions, something which I haven't seen on non-drugs related forums. This is clearly different from grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, or keyboard smashing where one just happened to press the wrong key.

I had this one since childhood but it seems to be getting aggravated lately where I constantly swap the letter 'r' and the digit 3 to the point where I put '3' in the middle of a word containing the letter 'r' or writing 'r' instead of 3 when I'm copying a phone number... Especially fun with passwords...

Anybody else noticed something like this?

Thanks,

Ethan

 

[Viridis]

Ethan, I may be three years too late but I do know what you mean.

After noticing that my visual dyslexic style symptoms were exacerbated by DMT (seeing distracting white rivers in paragraphs, white bleed around black letters) I googled these symptoms leading me eventually to the conclusion that I have been dyslexic this whole time.

In retrospect it makes sense - I started reading at 3 years old, have extremely sloppy spiderlike handwriting (typing was and is my saving grace, and god I hated those handwriting practice homeworks)

Verbally with speech I also switch up words (when typing this is usually quickly edited out) - usually smaller operative words like "and, if, was, when, take" etc

If you're still around it would be good to talk about this!

Kind Regards,

Viridis

 

[fuchs]

Hi! (first post, long time lurker. One of my favorite places on the internet!) I know what you mean. I've noticed similar things in my own writing. I haven't tried any of the classical psychedelics yet but my mind seems to be operating in a similar way, one contributing factor being a more or less daily meditation routine. For me there are two things that come to mind:

1. Synesthesia: google it if you don't know it, it's a phenomenon of sensory blending that can be brought on or strengthened by psychedelic use. For example, in my mind the letter R, the number 3 and the color red just feel like they belong together, which has occasionally led to typos like you described.

2. this might not be such a universal thing as synesthesia but... The error the you described of mixing up things like i will/i fell could be related to a shift in your way of thinking from thinking in words to thinking in sound or other sensory/abstract ways, i know that this is what happens to me sometimes since i'm a musician and have therefore trained my mind into operating in a more auditory way.

 

[Koornut]

A good exercise to understand the phenomena better might be to get yourself in that unfocused state by whichever means works best for you, and have your writing instrument ready at hand. Then try and write as much in that state as possible, until you notice yourself writing again. Quickly save the document and read it back to yourself out aloud a week later.

 

[Global]

You might want to look into spoonerisms. Also, psychedelics may simply screw with your ability to type accurately more so than being a form of dyslexia. If you can write with a pen on paper more accurately, then that may have different implications.