So, I've been left handed for two months now, the endeavor seems to be working

[eyepaddle]

I've been fairly sure for many years that I was a natural left hander who switched myself to being right handed in elementary school, and after more than a decade of mulling it over I decided to see if I could do anything about it.

First a disclaimer: nobody ever forced me to switch, not my teachers, not my parents or my brother, I basically picked my right hand because I wanted to be just like my older brother when I was four or five. By the time I was ten my mom would point out how much I used my left hand and thought I should've been left handed, or was maybe ambidextrous.

It was when I was in high school when I realized that maybe there was a bit more to my habits such as eating, brushing my teeth and shaving left handed than just random chance. There are a lot more details I could go in to, but you probably get the picture. By the time I was in college, I had pretty much figured out I had switched, but thought that since I had done it myself it wasn't that big of a deal, and that I should juct concetrate on becoming as proficient as I could with the hand I had already picked. Nevertheless, the topic stil always kind of nagged at me.

Well, for a few obscure reasons I decided to try something about it late this last May. There was one particular trigger that set me off, but I think it had been bubbling for while.

At any rate, after a few days my wrting was fairly legible, but slow and it took a lot of concentration, and I had trouble writing on my knee or other similar circumstances. That is when the crisis started. To be blunt, I knew the time had come to put up, or shut up, and the fear that I would try and fail was for some reason particularly terrible, as was the fear, that maybe, just maybe, I was completely nuts. Mixed with that was the unaswerable question, what had I missed in the last 30+ years? How could my life have been different? I spent more than a month so nervous I felt on the verge of vomitting most of the time.

But here we are now, in August, most of my angst has passed, I can even take notes in meeting left handed, it is still a bit slower than my right, but it just feels...better. In fact, there have been a lot of changes, most of them fairly intangible, but one quite pronounced and utterly unexpected: my fairly persistent severe indigestion hasn't come back since the first day I tried writing with my left hand. I don't know how that is connected, but I tell what, I'm pretty happy about it!

I'll say this much in conclusion: I don't reccommend anybody try this, unless you REALLY feel like it is right, err, correct for you, the brain trip from switching hands is powerful and not really pleasant, but for me, for reasons which are hard to explicitly state it has been tremendously worth it.

Thanks for reading.

[Evoman]

1. Ha...neat post.

It's funny, but I'm so right handed that my left hand is almost useless for anything. I'm still trying to live down the embarrasment of having my buddies watch me trying to throw with my left hand.

[eyepaddle]

3. I've acutally been out playing catch with my soon-to-be stepson, and

I had to use the only spare glove which was lying around--it was left handed. I was fearing embarrassment, but I was able to get the ball to him fairly accurately. It felt kind of weird, but at least accoding to his mom I didn't look all that awkward.

Oddly enough--or maybe it isn't odd after all, my left hand development really seems to mirror my right, just a lot faster. WHen I was young I threw right handed in a straight overhand fashion, and then switched to side arm (Kent Tekulve looked sooooo damn cool) which was a mistake, and then I switched to the more common three-quarter overhand some time in high school. With my left hand I throw pretty much straight overhand, it just feels right.

And my left hand signature, well I just found a driver's license from my teen years and my signature now looks just like it did then--which was before I had signed umpteen milion documents and developed a signature substantially different from my standard script. SO it has taken about two months to get to where I was afte about ten years of effort with the right hand.

It hasn't always been pleasant, but it has always been fascinating!

[Evoman]

4. When I throw with my left hand, I do that overhand, limp wrist thing.

Ever see that pictur of Bush Sr. throwing the pitch at a game....that's me, but worse.

[eyepaddle]

7. I'm just about 6'4" so when I throw straight overhand the ball is coming down from

about eight feet, so to get to the kid's glove I had to throw down at a fairly steep angle, to me it looked like if I had been pitching it would've been pretty damn tough to hit. Who knows, maybe I should've pitched more as a kid and spent less time in the outfield.

[southpaw]

2. Cool

I can't imagine being left handed... despite my screen name.

I've never had a minute of doubt about which hand is dominant.

[eyepaddle]

5. You know, you had me totally fooled--I thought you were a lefty!

Here's anopther odd tidbit. Back in college I was an okay--occasionally very good--pool shot, but my girlfriend was FANTASTIC, and it always puzzled me that she (a right hander) shot pool so well in a left handed fashion. After a year or so I finally started to comment on it, and then looked around EVERYBODY else was shooting left handed! And then it dawned on me, I was the one shooting left handed. I still laugh that it took me years to figure that out! :rofl:

[RainDog]

6. Interesting. I was forced to switch

In first grade. I still kick with my left foot and do a lot of different handed things from the left, but still write from the right. It's not uncomfortable to me, so I just consider myself somewhat ambidextrous. I have always been a horrible speller, but I don't know if that has to do with brain-edness or not. ;)

On that "which direction is the woman turning" thing, I can go back and forth on that one at will after a moment.

What sort of cognitive issues did you have with making the switch? (I'm not planning to do so, just curious.)

[eyepaddle]

10. It was really just a mildly ugly mid-life crisis. I never started to have trouble turning doorknobs

or anything like that. Just recently I have started to do things with my left hand (that I used to do with my right) without thinking about it. The first time I was taking notes on the whiteboard in my office without realizing I was using my left hand was a bit of a shock.

It was also a little disorienting to be so much more aware of my left side, I'd be walking around, just sensing my left arm. That was kind of wierd, I don't ever rememeber having that kind of sensation with my right.

I have also realized that it hurts to write with my right hand. Since I didn't have anything to compare it to, I just never noticed. The left is still slower (but getting better) but it is defintiely more relaxed when writing.

[DarkTirade]

8. I've always suspected that I would be ambidextrous if it weren't for the fact that

the entire world around me is built for right-handers. :P

[IndianaJones]

9. I found out I was left eyed a few years ago. It has helped immensely. nt.