[NickC25]

What does it say for mixed-handed folks like myself (different skillsets per hand - in other words, throw and write with different hands)? What about cross-dominance (different body parts differ on dominant side - in other words, a right-handed person being left-foot dominant)?

I've been told that it's effectively a mental illness if discovered during childhood (as is ambidexterity). Yet I can't help but think that it is not a mental illness, but rather something else.

[tejohnso]

In order to present it as a mental illness there would have to be some kind of negative effect, wouldn't there? These differences you mention don't stand out as harmful or even disadvantageous.

[ekaryotic]

southpaws are more common where at least one parent has schizophrenia. i believe it to be caused by an epigenetic change, where damage to the brain in a parent leads to the parent rewiring their brain to use the opposite hemisphere. In short, it's hardly an illness, more of an antibody to one.

[jvanderbot]

You were probably a left-handed person who was taught to write/use tools with their right hand in kindergarten. I got this treatment too.

[bkjelden]

I'm otherwise a lefty but I use computer mice right handed, because when I first started using a computer in elementary school all of the computer labs were set up right handed.

[toast0]

FWIW, I'm a righty, but relearned to use a mouse left handed for ergo benefits at my first real job; now I left mouse for work and right mouse for home. I prefer ambidextrous mice anyway, but it's really hard to find a left hand mouse if you want that. Even the ambidextrous mice often have thumb buttons for the right thumb. It's not to hard to learn to use a pointer with either hand; IMHO as someone who can't do a lot of complex motion with my non-dominant hand. I think there's a lot of convenience gained by accepting right mousing, although it is a longer reach if you have a keyboard with stuff to the right of your letters.

[Pay08]

Weirdly enough, I don't know why I use the mouse right-handed. I was forced into doing it in any particular way, and beside the fact that I was already an adult when I learned of the existence of left-handed mice, I can't think of any reason why I'd naturally gravitate towards right-handed mouse use.

[SoftTalker]

When was that? I know it used to happen, but I haven't heard of or seen that in my lifetime, I'm nearly 60.

[jvanderbot]

Probably because it didn't happen to you, or kindergarteners don't know better and just play along. I only remember it because I was a little shit and got into a big fight about it. It would have been late 80s.

[Hotdogsteve]

An elementary school teacher of mine had this happen to her (this was in the early '90s, so her experience I'm guessing would have been in the late '60s).

One day she wrote her name twice on the whiteboard and asked us to identify the difference between the two; visually they were identical, but she wrote one with her left hand and one with her right. She said as a kid she was made to use her right hand when she started showing signs of left-hand dominance.

[bluGill]

I didn't know what difference it made and there was one left handed scissors so it went to the kid who knew. I'm left eyed and often wonder if I should have learned to write left handed.

[mrsvanwinkle]

wait, you just gave me an extreme epiphany about my significantly worse right eye myopia. the divergence definitely snowballed from the "use it or lose it" thing and me not wearing my glasses as much as possible

[bluGill]

Every study in scientific examination that concept says that for myopia and such things use it or lose it does not apply. Use it or lose it does apply to some things but not that case.

[rolph]

it happened to me, and when my parents found out they flipped out.

i found out about my parents reaction like everyone else,, suddenly there was a bunch of screaming profanity and acoustic violence coming from the principals office

[toast0]

My parents generation is maybe a bit older than you, one of my mom's siblings was forced to right handedness. My mom is left handed and says they tried a little with her, but it only took for some things.

[godshatter]

It happened to me, and I'm 60. I lived in a rural area, maybe that's why.

[NickC25]

I don't know - my grandmother (father's mom) was fully left handed. My dad writes left handed but everything else right handed.

I am left handed for fine motor skills (writing, fork/knife) but throw righty and play single handed sports with my right (except for table tennis which i can do either hand at a good level). I can play two handed sports (hockey, lacrosse, golf) pretty much with either hand with little issue. Right footed, but can kick with my left pretty confidently.

[mrsvanwinkle]

Hey SAME! but pre-K, trained at home by cousin who used to be a lefty as well.

[MSFT_Edging]

I'm sorta here too. I'm right handed, no external pressure to use one hand or the other in early age. Mother is a lefty, father is a righty. As a result I often used the computer mouse on either side as a kid, really wherever it was left by the last user.

Learned to shoot a bow as a kid but only learned as an adult I'm left eye dominant, and to take advantage would require re-learning the bow in my left hand(many many strikes on my arm sent be back to a righty). Shooting guns is a similar situation, but I'm a fairly good shot regardless. It definitely makes using sights weird.

I'm semi-ambidextrous too, with enough focus I can somewhat cleanly write with either hand, and I'm generally good with my hands in fine tasks, with only a minor preference to pick up a tool with my right hand.

I wonder how common this is. People seem surprised when I demonstrate my left handed writing.

[Someone]

> I've been told that it's effectively a mental illness if discovered during childhood (as is ambidexterity). Yet I can't help but think that it is not a mental illness, but rather something else.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness#Types: “Mixed-handedness or cross-dominance is the change of hand preference between different tasks. This is about as widespread as left-handedness.”

⇒ about 20% of the population is not strictly right-handed. That’s not a majority, but I think the word to use for that is “normal”.

[liquidise]

Left-footed and right-handed. I find my "handedness" follows where the activity is driven from (upper/lower body).

Soccer, snowboarding, batting, golfing: lefty

Writing, throwing, tennis, pool: righty

[nephihaha]

"Left-footed and right-handed"

Same as Mickey Dolenz who drummed for the Monkees. Very unusual combination.

[rimworld]

true, with snowboarding, I still don't know which leg to lead with...