If you have a learning disability, school can be a tremendous source of stress. A learning disability, not to be confused with a learning problem, which can involve visual, motor, hearing handicaps, intellectual disability, or emotional disturbance, but is instead a neurological processing problem, which can interfere with skills such as math, writing, or reading. Not only is it harder to keep your grades up, but it can be socially awkward when other people notice your struggles. Pressure from friends and family piles on — especially when your grades don’t reflect the effort you put in.

If you’re in the work world, done with school for now, you hope you’re done wrangling with a learning disability. Unfortunately, this often isn’t the case. Learning disabilities are life-long conditions that continue to affect you, even after you’ve completed your schooling.

How Learning Disabilities Cause Stress

Many people don’t realize the extent to which a learning disability can affect daily living throughout one’s life, including job performance. In addition, learning disabilities aren’t obvious from the outside, so many suffer in silence. It’s hard to explain to others how learn differently and the accommodations you may require. Such misconceptions about learning disabilities also make them more stressful.

Low self-esteem

When you struggle academically, confidence suffers. In addition, society puts so much pressure on people to get college degrees and our society has sadly failed to encourage the development of other skills and paths. When you spend hours every day in school doing things that aren’t geared toward your strength, self-esteem takes a beating. You may struggle. You may have poor self-conception and view yourself as lessmotivatedor less intelligent because of a learning disability.

Social problems

In addition, some of the information processing challenges that accompany learning disabilities make processing social cues harder. It may be difficult to understand others or express your thoughts clearly.

Fear of failure

The chronic worry about whether you can graduate, get a good job, support yourself happily, and find a suitable social group takes a toll. We all worry about our future, but a learning disability adds complexity to planning for the future. Combined with low self-esteem, thisfear of failurecan feel overwhelming.

Other associated problems

Learning disabilities often have co-occurring conditions that further complicate your situation.ADHD, behavioral difficulties, anxiety, and depression tend to occur more frequently in individuals with learning disabilities, so this population may face additional stress associated with managing multiple needs.

How to Cope with Learning Disability Stress

There are many types of learning disabilities including ADHD (difficulty paying attention and staying on task), dyslexia (inability to comprehend text), dyscalculia (inability to order numbers), Dysgraphia (difficulty with the physical act of writing), and processing deficits (trouble making sense of sensory data). Here are a few strategies for coping with a learning disability:

Learning disabilities are most prominent in childhood, where the long school day piles on the challenges. People forget, however, that learning disabilities affect adults as well. Since learning disabilities tend to be a “silent disability,” not readily apparent outside of performance situations, it’s easy for individuals with learning disabilities to be overlooked.

Nevertheless, we can’t underestimate the mark learning disabilities leave throughout the lifespan. They contribute tostressand other mental health issues, as well as contribute to underachievement in school or work situations. Self-advocacy is essential for making the most of your potential, but know that these issues can be overcome.

Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.

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