posted August 05, 2006 02:20 PM            

I read about Keanu Reeves being Dyslexic which really does interest
me. After all, I am Dyslexic myself. I am literate because of special education
help including auditory, phonological,phonemic awareness,and phonics training.
I used to turn words arounds when I heard them. I had problems with
speech
because of that. I just mixed up words. I still have poor memory for
what I read and hear. I am a Dysphonetic Dyslexic which is an
auditory,phonological problem. I am not a Dyseidetic Dyslexic which has
to do with visual problems. I don't see words and letters incorrectly.
Dyslexics don't see words backwards either,and that is one of the myths
of Dyslexia. I can tell you that sometimes I will misread stuff even
though I see it correctly because I get letters jumbled up in my head. Most Dyslexics are Dysphonetic and not Dyseidetic. Unfortunately,lay people only seem to only know about the Dyseidetic Dyslexia and the myths.

Dyslexia is mainly difficulty with words and a rightbrained thinking
and learning style. Dys means difficulty with ,and lexia means words. There can be disorientation and confusion
according to THE GIFT OF DYSLEXIA by Ronald Davis. It is rightbrained
thinking style that involves thinking mainly in pictures, intuition,3-D
visualization ability,and thinking outside the box. They have vivid
imaginations. Being misunderstood is often common with Dyslexics. They
are often being mistaken for being stupid, retarded or lazy. A lot of
them are diagnosed AD/HD which could be a misdiagnosis. I was diagnosed inattentive type ADHD at the age of 32 years old in 2004. Although
Dyslexia affects 10 to 15 percent of the population, only 5 out of
every 100 people with Dyslexia are recognized and receive assistance.
This makes me think of Mercury-Neptune. I have 5 Mercury-Neptune
connections including Neptune in 3rd, Mercury parallel Neptune with 33
minutes of arc, Mercury conjunct Sun/Neptune midpoint with 14 minutes
of arc,Mars square Mercury/Neptune midpoint with 50 minutes of arc,and 3rd house ruler(Pluto)sextile Neptune with 57 minutes of arc.

Here are the indicators that I feel might have to do with Keanu's
Dyslexia. They are not all Mercury-Neptune connections. Some are
listed because they might indicate problems. Please remember that not
one single indicator shows his Dyslexia. It's a combination of more
than one factor. There are also people with 1 or 2 strong
Mercury-Neptune connections that don't have Dyslexia but just be
creative and artistic types but could be in danger of being diagnosed
with AD/HD and end up on medication. Some educators believe that, like
Dyslexia, AD/HD stems from a predominantly rightbrained learning
style. Like Dyslexia, giftedness and creativity are also found in
people with AD/HD as well as Dyslexia.

Neptune in 3rd - nonlinear,imaginative,receptive
mind,thinking......thinking in pictures....collective unconscious
thinking....possible unclear communications.

Mercury in 12th - thinking,communications linked to collective
unconscious.....can indicate hidden intelligence......like
intelligence being misunderstood...nonlinear thinking

Neptune square Mercury/Mars midpoint - nonlinear imaginative,receptive
mind,thinking....thinking in pictures...capable of sensory
overload....creativity...possible unclear communications

Mercury retrograde - reflective thinking...thinking over things before
saying something....miscommunications,misunderstandings but it can
also indicate
it can also indicate delays in communications

Sun conjunct Mercury with 16 minutes of arc(cazimi) - self expression,ego and
communications,thinking highly connected...overactive mind....mental
burnout is possible...can be high strung

Mercury conjunct Uranus with 16 minutes of arc -
innovative,unconventional mind,thinking....thinking outside the
box...can be high strung.....alternative learner

Mercury conjunct Sun/Uranus midpoint with 5 minutes of arc -
innovative,unconventional mind.....mind and innovative self expression
is very connected...can be high strung...alternative learner

Keanu Reeves Sept 2 1964 Beirut Lebanon, 5:40 AM

33 N 53 35 E 30 Tropical PLACIDUS
Standard time observed GMT: 03:40:00
Time Zone: 2 hours East
http://www.tribute.ca/Tribute/0901/keanu_reeves.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_dyslexia
http://www.dyslexia.com/
http://www.dys-add.com/define.html

posted August 05, 2006 05:24 PM              

River Phoenix - who had known and costarred with Keanu - also was dx'd with dyslexia. His data is: Aug 23, 1970, 12:10 AM, Madras, OR.

posted August 08, 2006 07:23 PM            

I don't believe in the myth of righthanded people are leftbrained and that lefthanded are rightbrained of course either. I am righthanded but I am rightbrained with my Dyslexia. A lot of righthanded people are rightbrained too. I wonder if it's because they are cross dominant like me.

There are many lefthanded people that aren't dyslexic or learning disabled. A lot of Dyslexics are righthanded.

posted August 08, 2006 08:07 PM            

My brother who is also left handed can also draw and play guitar amazingly! but was not dyslexic.(Although he does have a hard time with learning) but I have 2 other brother's who are Dyslexic and both are right handed and not as artistic as the one.. I guess it all depends.

I myself am right handed, But I am not dyslexic either, I am very scatter brained which made it hard to learn and I would always get pushed into special education classes for a short time and then they realized that wasn't the problem. I am emotional and when my emotion's are off or heightened, I can't grasp things.. so when I'm nervous It's like my brain has a mini melt down. (I have Merc rx and Sun Conjunct in my 8th house of Cancer)

Sorry for the rant I just found this very interesting.

posted August 08, 2006 11:33 PM              

Anyhow, being easily distracted, especially by difficulty with intense emotions (i,e regulating emoitonal responses and impulses), is one the main traits of EFD. It also effect one's ability to plan, remember steps in process, set goals, adn transistion from one activity to another without getting confused ro frustrated. here's a site to check out if you want o read more about it: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kskkight/EFD.htm

If actors are more likely to be dyslexic than the average population, perhaps it's due to their unusualy high abilities with expressive language. However, that wouldn't explain Keanu's trademark acting style, which if you ask me is only marginally better than a plank of wood. But this is probably an overgeneralization, like when people go "X, Y, and Z, are writers dx's with bipolar: bipolar must be very high among all writers." It's a logical fallacy; not actual stats.

posted August 09, 2006 01:07 AM            

However, I do believe that you could also just be a visual spatial learner who could have had problems with auditory sequential methods. I read a book about visual spatial learner called UPSIDE DOWN BRILLIANCE. Visual spatial learners aren't necessarily AD/HD but there is some overlap. They are considered rightbrained types. There is a book called RIGHTBRAINED CHILDREN IN A LEFTBRAINED WORLD. It talks more about how rightbrained children have a different learning/thinking style that is incompatible with leftbrained auditory sequential teaching methods that are in most schools. They could end up being labeled AD/HD or some other leanring disability and can be wrongly placed in special. A lot of people know that there is an over represention of African Americans in special education classes. I am part African American myself,but I was in special education to get my Dyslexia corrected. I remember being with mentally retarded children in 1st grade and then ended up in a class in another the next year that had no mentally retarded children. I was a fulltime regular student by 3rd after repeating the 2nd grade which involved mostly regular classroom but phonics training in afternoon to help me with my reading.

Not all Dyslexics are unusually good with expressive language,and I am definitely not.
There are lot of dyslexics with speech problems,and I am one of them. A lot of them can have problems with socializing too,and I am one of them too. I have always been very shy,awkward,clumsy person. I don't have problems understanding gestures,tones of voice,nor facial expressions. I communicate strongly in those ways. I tend to understand and react more to how things are said than what is being said. I tend to need things to be repeated or I get confused at times by what is being said...especially when it has to do multiple step. instructions. I feel that it really depends on the type of dyslexia,the severity of it. Speech delays/problems is one of the early warning signs of Dyslexia. Cluttering,Stuttering can be symptoms of Dyslexia. Some think that President Bush is Dyslexic because of his word retrieval issues when he speaks,but some think it's because he's stupid. I have the speech issues myself,and I am definitely not stupid but Dyslexic.

Of course a lot of Dyslexics don't have problems with speech.

It's the same with Visual and Auditory Dyslexics. Many Dyslexics have visual processing problems,but many other's don't. Most Dyslexics have phonological,auditory deficits.

Early intervention is very essential for the Dyslexic. I can read and write well because of my early intervention special education therapies. I am a competent speaker but I am a clutterer with minor articulation problems,and that got me a schizoaffective bipolar misdiagnosis in 1999.

another thing to keep in mind..it was the severe dyslexics that qualified for special education services. The milder dyslexics didn't,and they are the ones that usually get help late or none at all. The problem is that many wait for the dyslexic to fail before he/she gets help.

Here is site of International Dyslexia Association

http://www.interdys.org/servlet/compose?section_id=5&page_id=79 http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html

Cluttering (also called tachyphemia) is a communicative disorder characterized by speech that is difficult for listeners to understand due to rapid speaking rate, erratic rhythm, poor syntax or grammar, and words or groups of words unrelated to the sentence. The person with cluttering may experience a short attention span, poor concentration, poorly organized thinking, inability to listen, and a lack of awareness that his or her speech is unintelligible.

posted August 09, 2006 01:38 AM            

A SOLUTION TO THE RIDDLE OF DYSLEXIA(The DISCOVERY OF CEREBELLAR-VESTIBULAR SYNDROMES by Harold N. Levinson, MD

Occasionally, dyslexics manifested a "loose" and telescopic quality to their associative speech or thinking styles, and as a result tended to be rapid,wordy, and rambling in their spontaneous descriptions. This
interesting speech pattern appeared independent of anxiety factors,
and tended to resemble a schizophrenic's "loose associations" and tangential thinking. However, these dyslexic children were not psychotic, and lacked autistic preoccupation and projective thinking mechanisms. They merely seemed to forget momentarily the direction of their thought sequences and/or the thoughts and words themselves. Occasionally, the temporal spacing between words and sentences was shorter than normal and even dysmetric.

Later studes noted nonpsychotic "absentminded" adult dyslexics to
manifest similar loose,wordy, and rambling speech patterns ----clearly demonstrating the need to qualitatively and diagnostically
distinguish dyslexic speech patterns from schizophrenic patterns (Kasaninin, 1964). Upon analysis, this loose, absent-minded dyslexic thinking style prone to slips was found to be due to the very same
underlying memory, directional, and temporal spatial dyscoordination mechanisms characterizing dyslexic reading, writing, and spelling.

Not infrequently these so-called absent-minded individuals intend to
do say or do one thing and wind up saying or doing another, even the opposite of what was originally intended. Forgetting is commonplace. As a result, the dyslexic's speech and action patterns may often exhibit
a disoriented and disjointed, even comical, quality, which many clinicians fallaciously consider due to primary psychogenic
determinants. However, upon analysis, the dyscoordination or slip between intention and speech or motor response was most often found
lacking a primary emotional causation, and appeared qualitatively consistent with the dyslexic symptomatology. In retrospect, these
slips invariably provoked secondary emotional attempts at compensation; and the unsuspecting psychiatrist and psychologist will unwittingly mistake secondary defensive reaction with primary causation. For example, some dyslexics become embarassed, blush, and
retreat socially as a result of their slips, while others attempt to joke and rationalize them away.

Paradoxically, some dyslexics were found to demonstrate highly organized, crystal-clear thinking and expressive styles. Upon
analysis, many of these individuals were found to have had subtle and compensated speech impediments during their early childhood. In retrospect, their highly condensed speech patterns appeared to be
defensive or adaptive attempts at minimizing speech output and thinking errors. Although these dyslexics were often incapable of
spontaneous free-associative and reflective speech, they were more than capable of performing these same very same functions in silence.
For example, when asked to freely think aloud about a question, they could not or would not. But they could, and would,invariably produce the answer after a silent pause----clearly demonstrating their highly
developed, silent associative and reflective thinking capacities.Following recognition and resolution of their guarded or defensive
speech mechanisms, many learned to think aloud and to express themselves without embarassed or fear of criticism. Later adult
stories not only confirmed these observations but revealed the existence of dyslexics who were capable of free association and
reflection only when writing. Their fluent and lucid writing styles appeared to be motivated similarly by dyslexic verbalization
difficulties which were compensated for by gifted and/or unhampered writing functions.

Because the ability to free-associate is a cardinal and essential prerequisite for candidates being evaluated for psychoanalytic
therapy, and since this ability may be nonverbally present, it behooves psychiatrists and psychoanalysts to explore seriously these clinical considerations in their diagnostic-treatment assessment of
psychoanalytic patients.

The first part seems like Mercury/3rd linked with Neptune to me, and those are my problems. That astrological configuration can indicate the unclear,disorganized,tangential,absentminded, "scatterbrained" thinking and speech of Dyslexia. That's why I was misdiagnosed as
having schizoaffective bipolar by psychiatrists years ago in adulthood,and they never did any psychological nor medical testing. They only went by what they observed. I do have Neptune in 3rd in t-square,Mercury parallel Neptune,and Mercury conjunct Sun/Neptune midpoint,and Mars square Mercury/Neptune midpoint as well as 3rd house ruler sextile Neptune.

Luckily, Dr Levinson understood that my speech and thoughts weren't psychotic but Dyslexic. I saw Dr Levinson in June of 2005. He is the psychiatrist/neurologist who diagnosed m e as having cerebellar
vestibular dysfunction and recognized my Dyslexia,Dyspraxia.He didn't diagnose me with any mental illness. He thought my problems were neurological.

The second part seems like Mercury/3rd house linked with Saturn, and I have been like that as well for compensatory purposes. The
astrological configuration could indicate the
cautious,slow,organized,structured,systematic compensatory thinking and speech of Dyslexia.
I have Virgo Ascendant that would emphasize my need to minimize mistakes and be a perfectionist because of my fear of looking stupid and incompetent in front of others. This indicates my self critical nature. When I make mistakes,I tend to call myself "stupid" I felt like I was stupid for many years. When I succeeded at things,I thought it was luck. When I failed at things,I thought it was because of stupid. That's how many Dyslexics are. I have retrograde Saturn in Gemini oppose 3rd house planets in a t-square,Mercury contraparallel Saturn,and Mars oppose Mercury/Saturn midpoint.