# Left-handed people and mental illnesses/other problems. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596 "2017-12-30T21:46:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/41 "2018-01-01T15:24:48Z")
> [@SeniorCitizen007](#): > > I knew someone who could write simultaneously with BOTH FEET. The result was indistinguishable from her handwriting. My handwriting is that bad, too. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/42 "2018-01-01T16:18:43Z")
The following may help explain some oddities of handedness: > [@](#): > > … we now know that, although about 95% of right-handers do have left-hemisphere dominance for language functions, only around 19% of left-handers have right-hemisphere language dominance, with another 20% or so processing language functions in both hemispheres (the incidence of language distribution in ambidextrous people is broadly similiar to that found in left-handed people). [All] studies … suggest that, perhaps unexpectedly, some 60% - 70% of left-handers process language in the left hemisphere, just like right-handers! > > … the brain hemispheres of left-handers tend to be much more symmetrical and balanced than those of right-handers, and the differences between the hemispheres less pronounced… > > Interestingly, in the brain of “converted right-handers” (natural left-handers who switched to the right, usually at a young age), most of the activity in the motor and sensory integration input occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain, the same as for most innate right-handers. But there also appears to be significant activity in “hot spots” in the motor, sensory-somatic and audio-visual perception areas of the right hemisphere, which some scientists have interpreted as the brain’s attempts to suppress unwanted left-hand movement, suggesting that the brain is perhaps more hard-wired for handedness than previously thought. I am a “converted right-hander.” Whether I have mental problems would be a topic for another thread. I am extremely clumsy with my left hand, and not too nimble with my right hand. I do almost everything with my right hand, but I clasp my hands, fold my arms, and play cards the way a leftie does. ETA: My daughter was left-handed from earliest. We did NOT convert her. I once spent hours looking for left-handed scissors for her, with clerks mostly confused or amused. She wanted to play keyboard but AFAIK there’s no such thing as left-handed pianos, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/43 "2018-01-01T16:31:58Z")
Good info, **septimus**. I suspect I’m in the 20% of equal hemisphere-using lefties. It would explain why I can’t separate drafting from editing (one is creative/emotional and the other is mathematical/analytic but I do them concurrently.) My writing process is truly bizarre and time-consuming. For fiction, I keep a scrap document where I dump in everything I delete, and I’m constantly going back and forth, cutting, copying and pasting in old snippets with new bits of writing until I find a pastiche of words that works. So for any given chapter of 4,000 words, I’ve got about 30,000 words I never used just piled together in a separate document, and occasionally I’ll read something I shoved into the scraps document months ago, and I’ll end up rewriting the entire chapter because I decide I need to resurrect that bit. It’s exhausting and I’ve read enough craft books to know it’s not typical. Most people write two or three drafts, one after another, and then leave it. I was recently talking to a left-handed writer friend and learned _she does the exact same thing._ I wonder if we share something similar in neurological function, and if so, maybe it’s the reason we’ve connected so well. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/44 "2018-01-01T16:43:53Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Good info, **septimus**. I suspect I’m in the 20% of equal hemisphere-using lefties. It would explain why I can’t separate drafting from editing (one is creative/emotional and the other is mathematical/analytic but I do them concurrently.) My writing process is truly bizarre and time-consuming. For fiction, I keep a scrap document where I dump in everything I delete, and I’m constantly going back and forth, cutting, copying and pasting in old snippets with new bits of writing until I find a pastiche of words that works. So for any given chapter of 4,000 words, I’ve got about 30,000 words I never used just piled together in a separate document, and occasionally I’ll read something I shoved into the scraps document months ago, and I’ll end up rewriting the entire chapter because I decide I need to resurrect that bit. It’s exhausting and I’ve read enough craft books to know it’s not typical. Most people write two or three drafts, one after another, and then leave it. > > I was recently talking to a left-handed writer friend and learned _she does the exact same thing._ > > I wonder if we share something similar in neurological function, and if so, maybe it’s the reason we’ve connected so well. I only write non-fiction, but on longer pieces I do something very similar - I’ll keep bits and snippets in a separate document and work between that and the actual piece until I’m satisfied with the result. I’m also left-handed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/45 "2018-01-01T16:47:25Z")
As I understand it, there are many different reasons for left-handedness. Sometimes, it’s due to brain damage in the parts of the brain that would control the right hand, and so the person has no choice but to learn to do the best they can with the other hand: In this case, you really would have a person who was clumsier, and perhaps more prone to mental diseases. But other cases have other causes, which might or might not be associated with any particular other trait. This is also relevant for the question of including left-handers in clinical trials. You don’t just have one variable that, by including it, you can get that last 10% of the population. You have dozens of extra variables, each of which only gets you a percent or less. And to have a statistically-significant sample of each of those different kinds of left-handers, you’d need an absolutely huge sample size. And that’s even if you can actually identify all of the different sorts of left-handedness to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/46 "2018-01-01T19:03:36Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > You sound like your experience was administered by nuns, mine was by well-meaning somewhat hippy young public school teacher. So while it was still a weird thing to try, it was not a horror movie at least. Oh, for me it was 1st grade. Nope. Bitch number two (immersion in French; there were things we were supposed to know beforehand and I didn’t) was indeed a nun, but bitch number one (she of the ruler and of “how dare you force your poor child to learn to read!”) wasn’t. > [@septimus](#): > > ETA: My daughter was left-handed from earliest. We did NOT convert her. I once spent hours looking for left-handed scissors for her, with clerks mostly confused or amused. She wanted to play keyboard but AFAIK there’s no such thing as left-handed pianos, etc. I’m confused, pianos are both-handed. Several of the piano players I know are lefties and I’ve never heard of that causing problems. ETA: what is a draft? OK, OK, I actually know, but I don’t write them. Even when I’ve written fiction, it was 1) think about it, 2) write it down, 3) extract the structure. Drives my more-traditionally-structured managers nuts. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/47 "2018-01-01T20:31:40Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’m confused, pianos are both-handed. Several of the piano players I know are lefties and I’ve never heard of that causing problems. Thanks; I didn’t know. I just assumed that it would be easier to play melody with the dominant hand — I think I got the idea from her. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/48 "2018-01-01T21:28:50Z")
Gold Medal Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz was both dyslexic and ambidextrous, apparently there is an association between the former and the latter. It was thought that this gave him a natural advantage in the sport of wrestling. Sadly of course he was murdered by John du Pont. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2018, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/49 "2018-01-01T21:36:31Z")
The only people complaining here are not left-handed. Everyone is born left-handed. You turn right-handed when you commit your first sin. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/50 "2018-01-02T05:33:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This is also relevant for the question of including left-handers in clinical trials. You don’t just have one variable that, by including it, you can get that last 10% of the population. You have dozens of extra variables, each of which only gets you a percent or less. And to have a statistically-significant sample of each of those different kinds of left-handers, you’d need an absolutely huge sample size. And that’s even if you can actually identify all of the different sorts of left-handedness to begin with. That would be relevant if you wanted to study in detail the effect of handedness. In order to determine whether handedness does have an effect or the effect of handedness is an assumed mythos, you need to allow lefties in. Note that if all that’s asked is “lefty or righty” without further definition and since most people don’t know about cross-dominance and many converted lefties identify as righties, you’re still letting some of us weirdos in; we’re just incognito. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/51 "2018-01-02T07:18:39Z")
The best thing about being left-handed is that you can use a standard mouse and a wacom tablet at the same time. I love it.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/52 "2018-01-02T09:10:33Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Left-handed people apparently have more brain-structure variation than right-handed people, which is one big reason we are\*\* excluded from drug trials,\*\* neuropsych testing and other stuff. I highly suspect (though I’m not aware of current evidence) that the reason there are so many highly successful left-handed people is because our brains can be very flexible. With left-handedness, you’re more likely to get someone who is capable of abstract problem-solving _and_ highly creative \*and \*pays close attention to detail and can easily do all three at once. > > A buddy of mine was telling me there is evidence left-handed people have faster reaction times than right-handed people. And that we are more impatient/less able to handle suspense (a big hell yes from me.) > > **We’re also more sensitive to medications, probably because we’re excluded from most drug trials**. I don’t know if we are more likely to have a mental illness but I’d wager on the basis of exclusion from drug trials alone, we’re probably more difficult to treat. I’ve not seen lefties excluded from drug trials. When I google that phrase, I find articles about left handed people being excluded from neuroscience imaging research and, surprisingly, (to me anyway) genetic research. Maybe lefties were excluded from drug trials in the past(?) but, I think that is uncommon now. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/53 "2018-01-02T13:32:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Thanks; I didn’t know. I just assumed that it would be easier to play melody with the dominant hand — I think I got the idea from her. I understand that some pieces are harder on the right and some on the left - then again, who says composers are never southpaws? The biggest problem would seem to be having a wooden arm, whether that happens to be the left or the right. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/54 "2018-01-03T02:15:37Z")
We lefties are the only people in our right minds 🙂 Boy, was it annoying my freshman year of high school when I broke my left wrist in a biking accident (not due to handedness; due to car edging me toward the curb and falling on my left wrist). Everyone kept telling me how lucky I was that it wasn’t my right wrist! Ummm… Generally, I do gross motor coordination tasks (like sports, at which I am pretty terrible) with my right hand, and fine motor tasks like writing with my left. I’ve had to learn to be fairly ambidextrous because of the general lack of things like left-handed scissors and guitars. I’ve read that right-handed people think in words and left-handed people think in ideas. No idea whether there’s any truth to that at all. I’m really glad nobody tried to make me right-handed. My great-aunt Clara was forced to be right-handed, and consequently her handwriting was truly impossible to read. Of course they did all kinds of other screwed-up things to her, lie not sending her to school because she was hard of hearing. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2018, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/55 "2018-01-03T04:11:12Z")
I’m left handed with most tasks except throwing for some reason. I’m not a particularly good thrower anyways(probably becuase I’m left eye dominate) But I’m better with my right. This brings up a discussion I’ve had with my girlfriend who is a righty. When I eat I do so with my left hand if it’s with a single utensil. If it’s a knife and fork then the fork moves to the right hand and knife in the left. Her fork stays in her right hand regardless. She says I’m weird for it but I haven’t observed many lefties in the wild while eating, so I can’t be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2018, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/56 "2018-01-03T05:56:06Z")
Table utensils are weird for me. I cut with a knife in my left hand, I put the knife down and switch the fork to my left and to my mouth. For some reason everyone finds this weird. All my kids do this too, even the righty. I am sure it’s because I taught them this way. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/57 "2018-01-04T16:15:14Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > I’m left handed with most tasks except throwing for some reason. I’m not a particularly good thrower anyways(probably becuase I’m left eye dominate) But I’m better with my right. I can’t throw left-handed anymore, because I had to learn to throw right-handed when we couldn’t find a right-hand glove when I attempted softball as a kid. That and mousing are the only things I can do right-handed. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/58 "2018-01-04T16:54:52Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > I can’t throw left-handed anymore, because I had to learn to throw right-handed when we couldn’t find a right-hand glove when I attempted softball as a kid. That and mousing are the only things I can do right-handed. My problem was that I threw left-handed, but caught with the same hand. When you have to catch the ball then take off the mitt to throw the ball, you don’t last long in Little League. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/59 "2018-01-04T17:12:41Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > I only write non-fiction, but on longer pieces I do something very similar - I’ll keep bits and snippets in a separate document and work between that and the actual piece until I’m satisfied with the result. > > I’m also left-handed. Yeah…I also do this too. Also left-handed. I can’t think of any story of longer than about 5,000 words that I’ve ever written every scene in order, either. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596/60 "2018-01-04T17:16:45Z")
I’m left-handed. I write, eat, throw, cut, et al with my left hand. As a kid who wanted to play the infield in baseball (and not 1st Base), I tried to learn to throw right-handed. It didn’t take, although I was able to pitch as a lefty. And, for what it’s worth, I’ve battled depression my entire life. My uncle (also a lefty) was an alcoholic who died young. I have no idea how strong the correlation is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-people-and-mental-illnesses-other-problems/805596.md?page=4)