Spontaneously going from left to right handed
April 7, 2009 2:43 PM Subscribe
About ten years ago I was admitted to the mental health ward of my local hospital due to severe depression and anxiety. When being given an admission interview by a psychiatrist/psychologist (I am unsure which) she asked me 'Did you ever spontaneously change handedness, from right to left or from left to right'. I would have taken this as the madness normally associated with such people but, as a child, I did spontaneously change from being left handed to being right handed and have remained right handed ever since. The matter was never mentioned again and I have never made sense of the question. Any ideas?
I would assume, though I am not a neurologist, that a sudden change in handedness, recent to the onset of your depression, would be a potential indicator of certain kinds of brain damage. They were probably trying to narrow the scope of what might be the root cause for your symptoms.
posted by nomisxid at 3:08 PM on April 7, 2009
posted by nomisxid at 3:08 PM on April 7, 2009
The answer is what le morte de bea arthur said.
Here's a citation for a paper about the subject:
T.J. Crow, J.D. Done, and A. Sacker. Cerebral lateralization is delayed in children who later develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 22:3. 15 December 1999
Part of the abstract:
"Delay in establishing dominance in one hemisphere could be the critical factor that predisposes to schizophrenia."
posted by Cygnet at 4:10 PM on April 7, 2009
Here's a citation for a paper about the subject:
T.J. Crow, J.D. Done, and A. Sacker. Cerebral lateralization is delayed in children who later develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 22:3. 15 December 1999
Part of the abstract:
"Delay in establishing dominance in one hemisphere could be the critical factor that predisposes to schizophrenia."
posted by Cygnet at 4:10 PM on April 7, 2009
There's been quite some research done about how a change from your dominant hand to your non-dominant hand is unfavorable in all sorts of ways. The outcome seems to be typically that your psychological makeup suffers in one way or another - how exactly varies individually. So a disturbed (or delayed) establishment of dominance can be troublesome in many ways (possibly including a predisposition to schizophrenia, but IANAneurologist either).
This has nothing to do with ambidexterity as such. On the contrary: such a change results in subduing natural handedness, which once was clearly manifest. Ambidexterity, in contrast, means by definition: no specific handedness (in colloquial use, the word addresses only the symptoms - it means that at person appears to be equally good with both hands in practice, no matter the background. A very misleading use of the term).
I am not familiar with English literature on the matter, but in German Johanna Barbara Sattler has published a bunch of books about this.
In Germany there is (because so many German schoolkids, at least until the sixties, were forced to use the "good" hand, i.e. the right hand) something like a movement among what we call turned-around lefties to turn themselves back. They learn to write with their left hands again. I know a few people who re-learned writing with their left hand even after forty, and they say they are noticeably more happy and balanced after that. It's a lot of work, though: half measures don't do the trick, but probably just add to the confusion - and some people think that this whole enterprise can be risky.
posted by Namlit at 4:29 PM on April 7, 2009 [2 favorites]
This has nothing to do with ambidexterity as such. On the contrary: such a change results in subduing natural handedness, which once was clearly manifest. Ambidexterity, in contrast, means by definition: no specific handedness (in colloquial use, the word addresses only the symptoms - it means that at person appears to be equally good with both hands in practice, no matter the background. A very misleading use of the term).
I am not familiar with English literature on the matter, but in German Johanna Barbara Sattler has published a bunch of books about this.
In Germany there is (because so many German schoolkids, at least until the sixties, were forced to use the "good" hand, i.e. the right hand) something like a movement among what we call turned-around lefties to turn themselves back. They learn to write with their left hands again. I know a few people who re-learned writing with their left hand even after forty, and they say they are noticeably more happy and balanced after that. It's a lot of work, though: half measures don't do the trick, but probably just add to the confusion - and some people think that this whole enterprise can be risky.
posted by Namlit at 4:29 PM on April 7, 2009 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Sudden change in handedness can mean bipolar or dissociative disorder.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:54 PM on April 7, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:54 PM on April 7, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: That is interesting although it is only suggestive. I was later diagnosed bipolar.
posted by mogcat at 10:36 PM on April 7, 2009
posted by mogcat at 10:36 PM on April 7, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:06 PM on April 7, 2009 [1 favorite]