I’ve always been a cautious person with a few phobias.  Snakes, tornadoes, and flying right up there. 

But unlike my real phobias, I try to look at my fears and anxieties caused by my learning disability as challenges.  Living with a disability means having to get through mental obstacles that arise so I can live a normal life.  However, there are several things that even though I WILL deal with, still terrify me.  When I approach these, I try to keep a sense of humor and do my best to get through them. 

And sometimes, I even surprise myself with how well I deal with them!

Top Ten Things that Scare Me as a Dyscalculic:

1. Going into a bank to carry out any sort of transaction.

    2.  Cash registers…running one or paying at one.

    3.  Paying bills.

    4.  Counting out coins while someone is waiting on me to finish, namely a cashier or a customer waiting behind me while breathing down my neck.

    5.  Card games…all those rules!  My friends love card games and thankfully are always patient when explaining the rules each time we play.

    6.  Recalling long combinations of numbers (my locker combination in high school and my social security number still give me nightmares). 

    7.  Calculators…these don’t always help someone who is dyscalculic.

    8.  Peoples’ reactions when I talk about my dyscalculia.

    9.  Getting lost…but my Garmin GPS is helping with that!

   10.  The Metric System (I live in the US and cannot wrap my brain around this).