#dycalculia

[sumontienne]

you will not find a more perfect, tar-rich blackness in the ozymandian depths of our extended universe than the blackness festering within my heart for mathematics. there is no subject nearly as devoid of love or compassion, none more thoroughly dedicated to the agony and persecution of innocent minds, none more worthy of scorn, defranchisement, and derision by anyone who is remotely concerned with the maintenance and direction of our educational system and its future. i cannot stress how tantamount the importance of avoiding math is for our collective sanity. its enforced continuation as a requirement in higher education is solely a method by affluent institutions to weed out economic undesirables, and its continued existence is a mere pastiche of the crocodile-tear morals and virtues of a tech industry utterly hellbent on sucking the blood of our children and razing the acres of our labor.

[sumi-sprite]

I'm an English major with dyscalculia. I got somewhat lucky that my community college allowed me a class exception (phil class for math rec)...but this was only AFTER failing one basic math course, and having to go to the civil rights office to push the college to let me have an exemption. Otherwise? They told me to take the class again, if I failed, take it again. If that failed, they would CONSIDER an exception. I was on financial aid to pay for college. If I failed too many times, I lose FA, and thus, no college for me. I wouldn't have gotten my Associates.

People really do not realize how this one class that absolutely ruin a college career. Percentages vary, but there are is a massive percentage of students outright leaving college and universities because they can't pass their math classes, and the vast majority of them are going for degrees that do not require anything above basic math knowledge (add/sub, multi/div).

We slog through math courses in high school and barely make it out with any confidence intact and almost no long-term memory of how to do algebraic equations, and this is for someone who doesn't have dyscalculia. And we can't choose not to take math courses in college if we want a basic degree. If we fail, we're punished and called stupid. "Try harder". "Get a tutor". "You'll get it eventually". "You're just dumb". "Give up". Our panic attacks, anxiety, and pure DREAD are written off as "being dramatic" when in reality we feel like dying of sham and self-loathing. We ask ourselves "Why can't I get this?". Rote learning becomes at first our friend, then our enemy. We get enthusiastic when we think we get it, but then it gets harder, and confidence is shattered all over again.

To those of us who HAVE "cheated", who have had someone who understands math understand you and take that burden for you; and for those of us who have succeeded in life because of it...Good for you. I'm proud of you.

Today’s comic is a special one because it discusses #dyscalculia, which co-occurs frequently with #adhd. I personally live with it and it’s something I feel should be discussed more often.

[mcmadcanvas]

Any time I doubt that I might be autistic, I remember when I actually was tested for autism, but we couldnt afford the $300 for the actual piece of paper that confirmed or denied it.

My psychologist held up several cards that had some kind of 'pattern' to them. Some were really easy, like every 3rd shape is green. Others were harder, like an entire sentence where the words had been spelled backwards, with the exception of the 1st and last letters in the proper place.

And then there was one card. LITERALLY ONLY ONE CARD that I could NOT identify the pattern to. It was several math equations in squares, and after staring at the card for 8 minutes, solving each math equasion to see if they were the same answers, cross multiplying and diving, and asking my psychologist for 'just a little bit longer' TWICE, I COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT.

And bro, I still constantly think about that card. What the hell was the pattern? I cant remember the exact numbers, but the answers were a mix of odds, evens, and primes. WHERE WAS THE PATTERN?!?

Anyways, I dont think neurotypical people do this...

[sodacowboy]

bro why can’t math be easy

[losergendered]

ID: a set of 42 images in 21 pairs. each has one image of the listed thats not my neighbor character, with a white outline in front of their corresponding flags, and a second image which is a blank flag splice. END ID

Roman Stilinsky from That's Not My Neighbor is a trans butch lesbian with chronic fatigue! 

Lois Stilinsky is a cis poly lesbian with separation anxiety!

Robertsky Peachman is an unlabeled semi-verbal autistic man!

Albertsky Peachman is an aroace autistic man!

Angus Ciprianni is a cis bisexual man!

Selenne and Elenois Sverchzt are both catgender ladies with BPD and separation anxiety!

Arnold Schmicht is a trans heteroflexible man!

Gloria Schmict is a cis unlabeled woman!

Izzack Gauss is completely unlabeled!

Margarette Bubbles is a cis polyamorous lesbian!

Nacha Mikaelys is a transmasc non-binary lesbian with anxiety and ADHD!

Anastacha Mikaelys has a trauma-related anxiety disorder!

Mia Stone is a trans biflexible woman!

Dr. W.  Afton has autism!

Francis Mosses is a transfemme hypersexual lesbian with PTSD, depression, anxiety and anxiety induced paranoia, and ADHD!

Steven Rudboys is a bigender pansexual objectum person with PTSD!

McClooy Rudboys is a cis pansexual aromantic man with PTSD!

Alf Cappuccin is an ally!

Rafttellyn Cappuccin has generalized anxiety disorder, and anxiety induced halluciantions!

The Scarlet Milkman doppleganger is a non-binary agender lesbian with autism!

The dOOrman (art by@/otherworldlyoddities) is an eldritchgender aromantic cuiposexual lesbian with dycalculia and ADHD!

For @gmanwhore !

[just-a-sleepy-idiot]

DBH Connor Drabble: Helping Reader with Dycalculia

Based off a lovely fanfic I just read by @geesegooseblog that was really encouraging and inspiring to me. I just started playing so Idk how accurate this depiction of him is

Content/Warnings: Gender Neutral Reader, Numbers, Some of the things that I personally find struggling or helpful

You were in the precinct because the way you could understand people and their behavior was something the investigators in charge had lacked, but it sure wasn’t your relationship with numbers. You had avoided letting anyone know about your Dyscalculia, you didn’t want to be mocked.

It was easy enough for Androids to surpass human capacities these days but you were even worse than the regular human when it came to that aspect. You didn’t want to let anyone in on this seemingly easy to overcome struggle, because for you it wasn’t a matter that could be fixed by practicing. It just didn’t make any sense to begin with.

And now you were sat there with the analytics papers in front of you in the break room. Graphs and numbers that simply correlated with each other about the Police statistics, and you were assigned to write a report off of that. How did you even begin to make sense of this??

You nervously drummed your pen against the table, looking around before standing up. You didn’t want anyone passing by you to see that you were struggling. If they saw that you haven’t written anything yet you would make some tea- you would rather have someone think you were slacking rather than being seen as dumb.

You heard steps and quickly went to start boiling some water, your gaze nervously shifting around.

„Y/n, hello.“ You were greeted with the calm, ever steady voice of Connor. Your shoulders relaxed a little bit but you swallowed hard. „Hello Connor. Did you need something?“ You fidgeted a bit with your hands and turned around to look at him. He took a seat next to yours where the graphs were and put his hands on the table. „No. Hank gave me the order to ‚go and bother someone else‘ so I am now doing that.“ You cracked up a little and smiled.

You had gotten somewhat close to Connor since you were mostly entrusted with things like keeping up with Informants, talking to the relatives of victims or suspects- everything that required Empathy and a good understanding of the person in front of you. Connor was pretty lost when it came to the adequate dealings with humans, which is why he came to you pretty frequently to discuss social topics with you. Connor observed that your body language differed greatly from the others when he asked you those questions. Instead of grimacing, sighing and turning away to signal their disinterest you smiled once you spotted him, raising your brows and turning your whole body towards him. You were willing to give him your full attention every time, even if you had something else to do you took a moment to look him in the eye and explained that you would get back to the topic once you were finished.

You slowly sat down again since you were letting your tea sit now and you had to get back to what you were doing.

Well.. you looked at the graphs, but knowing that Connor most likely already picked up on your elevated heart rate made you even more nervous. He tilted his head at you with curiosity, his expression remaining neutral. Your palms became sweaty, you felt shame and lowered your gaze to avoid his gaze. Why couldn't you just.. do this?? This was pathetic.

"Connor um.." you started quietly, he cut you off by pointing on the graph. "1452 cases in total and a succession rate of 86 Percent, that is fascinating." Your eyes shot up to look at him, his eyes were gliding over the papers without any pause. "Where.. did you see that?" You asked carefully and looked at the paper again, hoping to have a pointer to how to understand those numbers. He pointed to a specific point, you quickly got yourself an empty paper and a pen, scribbling down what you remember. You repeated the number in your head, 1452-1452-1452.. you slowly put down a 1. Connor looked at your paper, "Four, Five, Two."

Your eyes widened slightly, quickly glancing at him before hurrying to put the numbers down he dictated you. You let out a quiet sigh, relaxing your posture slightly. "The succession rate of 86 Percent is 1248.72 Cases solved. One.. Two.. Four.. Eight Point Seven.. Two." Connor simply added without stopping once to give you a weird look, speaking gently and patiently like he always would.

You put everything down on paper and sighed in relief, the content of that graph was now clear. You didn't understand it but now you could simply copy that into your report. Connors gaze dropped from your concentrated eyes to your lips which now formed a small smile.

You noticed him looking and met his gaze. "Thank you.." You gently touched his arm for a moment, he noticed that you did that from time to time. Humans touched as a sign of friendliness and companionship, for comfort and intimacy with each other- he recalled. Connor quickly let his eyes roam you before he decided on the best spot for reciprocation- and put the hand of his other arm on yours. Your eyes widened the slightest bit when he did that, he lingered there for a moment before letting you go.

„Your tea has reached the maximum of the recommended sitting time.“ He informed you and you smiled, „Ah, yes. Thank you.“ You both stood up. „I will ask Hank for new orders now.“

Hope you liked it, tell me if you want me to write more for Connor!

[belphieslilcow]

stuck in the rut of wanting to draw but also every time i go to draw theres a demon who talks about drawing fundamentals, and gesture drawing, and anatomy studies, and that if you can't draw a perfect and anatomically accurate realistic human body then you cant draw in a cartoony style and that your art will never actually look good

and then i look at how my art is always so behind other peoples that i think i share similarities with and its like man why isnt my art there yet why doesnt my stuff look that quality but also the idea of doing these things makes me want to k my s, its way too overwhelming and i Dont Get It (probably relating to my dycalculia idk how but i can feel it)

but also i know that if i dont draw my skills with degrade and then ill get worse and worse so It Sucks

[scribbles504]

Fuck having both dyscalulia and dyslexia at the same time. But specifically fuck having dycalculia. Not being able to conceptualize (is that the right word?) a number properly sucks. For example, if someone were to say to us, "Picture three meters," the distance we imagine might look more like two meters or six meters.

I'm tired and barely coherent, but this has been an update of sorts.

[doueverwonder]

I'M WHEEZING one of the things in my homework tonight was a "I'm falling behind in math, i must have a defective math gene" followed by that type of speech doesn't help anyone blah blah blah... and i'm just,,,, friend i DO have the defective math gene, i have the dycalculia i- this is so funny that's just a factual statement for me my man

[est-pulcher]

"My dycalculia doesn't affect me that much" <- girl who did the wrong exercise for homework because she got the page numbers back to front

[cripp-tid]

hi! i just wanted to say that, while its a common misconception, pots is not rare. (heds is probably not going to be considered rare either but the research isnt quite there yet.) even before covid but especially now pots becoming more + more common. it is underdiagnosed, under-researched, and misunderstood but it is not a rare disease. i just wanted to say that as a pots patient myself who also has a bunch of other rare disease!

Well, I did say "slightly" lol.

I'm basing all this math on the internet because I have dycalculia, so correct me if my numbers are wrong, but. I live in the United States, and there's about ~342 million people here. POTS is estimated between 1-3 million Americans currently, but I did 3-5 million in the calculations to give it some wiggle room.

That's. That's about 0.8% to 1.5% of the country. So, no, not rare, but about as common as intersex people, redheads, or people with DID. Definitely uncommon ENOUGH that my point stands.

I totally agree that it's gotten way more common after long COVID, and the numbers are for sure going to spike soon. But based only on the stuff we have access to at the moment (I cannot see into the future), it's still, as you said, very misunderstood and under-researched.

[a-girl-named-chester]

I don't mean to be a bother so please ignore me if this an option you've considered, but I know that if math and science don't work for you there are many colleges with open curriculums that don't have "core" or "required" classes (I'm an English major graduating with a BA and 0 math or science credits)!

I have NO IDEA when I received this ask, but Anon, if you see this, thank you. Probably sometime after I posted whatever it was you sent thi sin response to, I was actually diagnoses with dycalculia, which explains a LOT. I did get a waiver on my math classes, and as a result, I have an AA now! It's in liberal arts. It only took me 6 years or so, lol. I thought about going back to school for a BA in english, and I still kind of want to, but honestly, I'm barely staying afloat with all the personal life stressors, so for now, I'll be satisfied with my AA and taking a class here and there. Thank you again, Anon! I hope you are doing well, wherever life has taken you. <3

[justagrin]

Yepppp the amount of learning disabilities I have sounds so fake tbh despite the fact that dyslexia/dycalculia/dyspraxia and ADHD/austism are usually comorbid pff. Add hearing loss, IBD, and fibromyalgia + my laundry list of mental health issues and oh boy it really does sound like I'm making it up lmao

A question for other disabled humans out there. Do you ever have so many health issues that you feel like everyone you tell doesn’t believe you because it’s just health issue after health issue, etc. and it feels like they think it’s for attention.

Example: I’ve always had migraine and chronic fatigue, then it was hearing loss, now it’s probably neuropathy. I need hearing aids and now am seriously considering a cane but my internalized ableism and the judgment from my parent makes it nearly impossible to justify getting a cane. I feel like everyone thinks I’m just disabled for attention which sounds stupid but anyways does anyone feel this way?

[coseris]

Me, watching the episode where we first see TJ struggling with math, already knowing about the sheer gay energy he emits later: g a y s c a n’ t d o m a t h

[sodacowboy]

every day I am more and more convinced that I am numbers dyslexic

[lyctorism]

"no one hates math they hate how it's taught" bold of you to assume i don't have dyscalculia and also your mom's a hoe