Dyslexia and OCD: Unpacking the Overlapping Symptoms

Dyslexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are two common life-altering conditions that can significantly affect a person’s quality of life. But, although dyslexia and OCD are different conditions, studies suggest that they surprisingly share some interesting overlapping symptoms. Researchers have also found that some people can experience symptoms of both conditions at the same time.

In this article, we will not only explore the link between dyslexia and OCD, and the overlapping symptoms but also some of the challenges a person with this comorbidity may face in their daily lives. Lastly, I will provide you with effective ways to manage both conditions. The hope is that by the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of how dyslexia and OCD are intertwined so you can receive the treatment you need to have a happier and more productive life!

What is Dyslexia?

Over 3 million people in the US struggle with dyslexia, a learning disorder that involves impaired reading, spelling, and writing skills. Although this condition involves reading, spelling, and writing, it is not indicative of a person’s level of vision or intelligence. Some researchers suggest that dyslexia may be a product of genes, or have an environmental component (i.e., stress), while others suggest that this condition stems from both genes and environmental factors. 

Dyslexia can present alone or be “combined” with other health conditions like OCD. It is not diagnosed through labs or imaging tests, rather self-reports, low grades in school, and observations are used to determine if a person has the condition. And, while there is no “cure” for this condition, there are a variety of effective treatments that can help a person learn how to read, write, and spell properly. Understand, however, that without proper help, dyslexia could last for years.

What is OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common unwanted and involuntary anxiety condition that involves intrusive thoughts, fears, emotions, urges, or visions (obsessions) and/or repetitive and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions). It is possible to only have obsessions or compulsions – and still have OCD. Also, understand that there are many types of OCD, ranging from reading OCD or solipsism OCD to contamination OCD or hoarding OCD. OCD is cyclic in that it involves a continuous cycle of stress/anxiety < obsessions < and compulsions. 

This condition can negatively affect your life and prevent you from socializing, leaving your home, forming friendships and romantic relationships, being productive, going to school or work, or completing tasks. The good news is that OCD can be treated in a variety of formal and alternative ways, such as with acupuncture, mindfulness, or crystal therapy, or with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure-response and prevention (ERP) therapy, or medications like SSRIs.

What is The Relationship Between Dyslexia and OCD?

Both dyslexia and OCD can have a significant impact on various parts of your life. These conditions are similar in the fact that they share commonalities. In fact, researchers have found that dyslexia and OCD share overlapping symptoms. Studies also suggest that people with dyslexia may have an elevated risk of also developing and people with OCD have an elevated risk of developing dyslexia. 

Researchers have also discovered that people with dyslexia may be cognitively rigid or unable to redirect or “switch between tasks or ideas. This could be due to their inability to make plans and/or organize information, concepts, or tasks. Likewise, researchers have found that OCD sufferers also tend to have a hard time “changing direction” or redirecting, as a result, may come across as “rigid” in their thoughts and behaviors. This cognitive inflexibility and rigidity (an inability to let go of certain habits, thoughts, and behaviors) is one way that symptoms of both conditions overlap.

What Are the Symptoms of Dyslexia and OCD

OCD Symptoms

The symptoms of OCD can vary from person to person but may include:

• Reoccurring, unwanted, and intrusive thoughts, fears, visions, or urges
• Repetitive ritualistic behaviors or mental acts that are performed to ease the stress and anxiety causing the obsessions. 
• Excessive cleaning, checking, counting, hoarding, ordering, or hand-washing
• Cyclic behaviors involving stress/anxiety < obsessions < and compulsions
• Feelings of shame and guilt
• A need for reassurance 
• Avoidance of OCD triggers
• Irritability and frustration
• Confusion
• Taking longer than normal to complete tasks
• An inability to solve problems
• An inability to stop the obsessions and compulsions
• Emotional distress
• Widespread challenges – personal, social, and career-wise

Dyslexia Symptoms

The symptoms of dyslexia can vary from person to person but may include:

• Reading, spelling, and writing challenges
• Problems reading aloud
• Spelling errors and grammatical mistakes
• Problems understanding and following verbal instructions
• Time management and organization struggles
• Problems memorizing and remembering details, words, names, events, and other information
• Avoidance of reading activities
• Mispronunciation of names or words
• Problems understanding jokes or non-verbal expressions
• Taking a longer time than normal to finish reading, spelling, and writing tasks
• An inability to correctly summarize a story
• Problems learning a foreign language
• An inability to correctly solve math word problems
• Irritability and Frustration
• An inability to stop the problem without help 
• Feelings of shame and guilt
• Confusion
• A need for reassurance
• Widespread challenges – personal, social, and career-wise

What Are The Overlapping Symptoms Between Dyslexia and OCD?

There are several similarities between dyslexia and OCD symptoms. For instance, both conditions have both genetic and environmental factors. Both conditions also involve avoidance – avoidance of triggers with OCD and the avoidance of reading, spelling, and writing activities with dyslexia. People with dyslexia and people with OCD often feel shame and guilt about having the condition and being unable to stop it. 

People with OCD tend to feel ashamed of having intrusive thoughts and engaging in repetitive behaviors and guilty because they can’t stop them, while people with dyslexia tend to feel ashamed of being unable to read, spell, or write like their peers and being unable to “fix” this impairment. Both groups of people often need reassurance that they are “normal” and that they are not crazy, weird, inadequate, or defective. Moreover, dyslexia and OCD can come with time management issues. 

People with OCD tend to have problems with time management due to their non-stop intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors that prevent them from completing tasks, while people with dyslexia struggle with this due to spending too long amounts of time trying to read, write, or spell words correctly. Both groups also struggle with organizational issues. 

People with OCD tend to have a hard time organizing things because they get caught up in an OCD cycle that prevents them from moving forward (neurodivergence), while people with dyslexia tend to have problems organizing because their brains interpret and organize words differently than their peers (neurodivergence). 

People with dyslexia and people with OCD tend to take longer to complete tasks. People with dyslexia tend to take a longer (than average) time completing reading, writing, and spelling tasks due to their inability to interpret words correctly, while people with OCD tend to take a longer (than average time) due to OCD loops (non-stop thoughts and behaviors).

Another overlapping symptom between the two conditions is an inability to solve problems. People with OCD have a hard time solving problems due to getting “stuck in their heads” or becoming obsessed with one part of the problem and having to engage in a ritual several times to move past it. People with dyslexia have a hard time solving math word problems because they are unable to read, interpret, or understand what the sentence or passage is saying. 

Both groups are also likely to experience memory issues. People with OCD are likely to struggle with memory issues because of their infatuation or obsession with one aspect of the person, such as a misplaced eyelash, blemish, piece of food stuck in someone’s teeth, disability, race, etc. This infatuation consumes the person so they are unable to take note of other details like the person’s name. 

People with dyslexia, on the other hand, tend to struggle with memory issues because they are unable to interpret or understand the meanings of certain words, names, and details. They also have a hard time remembering things because all of their energy is spent on trying to understand certain words. These individuals, like people with OCD, become laser-focused on these words that they miss other aspects of a person like their name and other important details. 

Both conditions involve emotional distress, confusion, frustration, and irritability because they can impact various aspects of a person’s life. Dyslexia and OCD are life-altering, stressful, and anxiety-provoking, and both can affect a person’s quality of life in a significant way. And, both conditions are unlikely to “go away” with help or treatment.

What Are Some Challenges That People With OCD and Dyslexia Face In Their Daily Lives?

• Excelling at School

People with OCD and dyslexia comorbidity may experience problems at school. Specifically, these conditions can negatively affect grades (at all levels of school including college). People with OCD may miss school or be tardy to school frequently because of their non-stop obsessions and compulsions. 

In other words, these individuals can become “wrapped up” in their thoughts, fears, urges, emotions, and visions, and the need to ease them by performing compulsions (rituals and routines) that they arrive at school late, leave early or miss it altogether. They may also have a hard time paying attention and focusing in class, and/or they may experience distracting thoughts that prevent them from acquiring, retaining, and remembering information. This can cause their grades to decline. 

On the flip side, people with dyslexia may become “stuck” trying to read, spell, or write something that they run out of time to complete assignments. Because these individuals struggle with reading, writing, and spelling (i.e., interpreting and understanding words) on par with their peers, they may give up or refuse to complete their assignments or tests. This can also cause low grades and academic challenges. 

• Socializing With Others 

People who struggle with dyslexia and OCD may also have a hard time socializing with others, especially those in their age group. Because people with OCD often feel shame and guilt associated with their thoughts and behaviors, spending time with and forming healthy relationships with others. For instance, a person with OCD may avoid social events because they are “stuck” in an OCD loop and unable to escape it. 

Or, a fear of something could cause them to be “stuck” in their home due to a fear of contamination or harm. People with dyslexia may avoid socializing because being unable to read, write, and spell is a source of embarrassment for them. These individuals may avoid others out of fear of being judged on their lack of skills. Being unable to socialize or “connect” with others, due to dyslexia and OCD, could lead to self-isolation, social anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

• Developing Other Comorbidities

People with dyslexia or OCD have an elevated risk of developing mental health comorbidities. For instance, studies suggest that dyslexia may also be linked to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, and depression. While OCD may be linked to depression, social anxiety, PTSD, and eating disorders.

How is OCD and Dyslexia Comorbidity Treated?

Managing OCD and dyslexia comorbidity can be challenging because both conditions must be fully treated to receive a complete recovery. The good news treatments for both conditions also tend to overlap.

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Exposure-Response and Prevention (ERP) Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure-response and prevention (ERP) therapy can be used to treat both OCD and dyslexia. CBT may be beneficial for people struggling with OCD because it could challenge negative or inaccurate thoughts, and help them change the way they perceive their OCD triggers – i.e., fears, thoughts, urges, visions, emotions, etc. 

This change could take place through CBT (changing thought processes so the “trigger” no longer sparks a desire to engage in compulsions to get rid of the stress and anxiety linked to it) or ERP therapy (gradual exposure to the “trigger” so that it loses its “power” over the individual).

People with dyslexia could benefit from CBT and ERP therapy because it could change the way they “decode” or interpret words (the pronunciation and meaning behind them) so they can read, write, and spell on par with their peers. Specifically, CBT could also help them challenge negative or inaccurate thoughts, and help change how they view their learning disorder, which, in turn, could make them more receptive toward learning the correct way to read, spell, and write.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Likewise, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) could be beneficial for both groups of people because it teaches individuals to accept themselves and their experiences while making a commitment to make the necessary changes to stop undesirable thoughts and behaviors and become better versions of themselves. This psychotherapy could be beneficial for people with OCD and dyslexia which makes it an ideal treatment for dyslexia and OCD comorbidity.

For people with OCD, ACT could help them stop blaming themselves or feeling guilty, and start accepting that they have OCD – obsessions and compulsions, so they can get the OCD help they need to start taking control of their life. For people with dyslexia, ACT could help them stop blaming themselves for their learning disorder and get the dyslexia help that will improve their reading, spelling, and writing skills.

• Medications

Although medications, like SSRIs, are most commonly prescribed to people with depression, anxiety, or OCD, they may also be prescribed to dyslexics who suffer from performance anxiety, social anxiety, or depression due to their inability to read, spell, or write like their peers. Because antidepressants can work for people with dyslexia-related anxiety and those with OCD, there is a high likelihood that it could be beneficial for people with dyslexia and OCD comorbidity.

• Self-Help Tools

Self-help tools are good interventions for people who struggle with dyslexia and those who struggle with OCD. Self-help tools can reduce stress and anxiety – common triggers for both conditions. Common self-help tools that can help dyslexics and OCD sufferers with their symptoms include hypnosis, yoga, art therapy, healthy eating, regular exercise, essential oils, CBD, OCD support groups, forums, and podcasts, and/or online OCD treatment programs like Impulse Therapy.

• Assistive Tools & Accommodations

Although assistive tools and accommodations are more likely to be associated with dyslexia than OCD, people from either condition could benefit from the extra help. People with dyslexia could use assistive tools and accommodations at home and in the workplace to help them build confidence and be successful in their lives. These assistive tools and accommodations could include aids that could make reading, spelling, and writing easier.

For instance, an assistive tool that could be beneficial for dyslexics is speech-to-text software that transcribes spoken words into written text. Moreover, fonts that are easier to read (not jumbled) and decipher, a lower reading level, and overlays that contain color can make reading, spelling, and writing visually less stressful and more “readable.”

Accommodations in the classroom or office could include allowing for extra time to complete assignments or tests, an in-class and/or out-of-class tutor or academic coach, a life coach, an IEP plan at school, specialized seating, an easy training program at work, or someone to take school or work notes for the individual.

People with OCD could also benefit from extra time on tests, specialized seating, an easy training program at work, an academic tutor or coach, a life coach, and/or a note-taker during class or in meetings. These assistive tools and accommodations could reduce anxiety and help keep a person with dyslexia and OCD comorbidity focused and engaged at work or at school.

Note: A service dog would also be beneficial for people with dyslexia and OCD comorbidity. This assistive aid could ease stress and anxiety for these individuals so they could relax and retain the information they are learning.

Final Thoughts

Unpacking the overlapping symptoms between dyslexia and OCD can help you understand what is happening to you. More specifically, it can help you effectively manage your symptoms. Although there is no “magic cure,” there are a variety of treatments that can help both conditions simultaneously.

Psychotherapy, medications, self-help tools, and assistive tools and accommodations can help stop the non-stop, unwanted obsessions and repetitive behaviors so you can complete tasks, socialize and form relationships, feel good about yourself, and excel in life (in and out of work or school). With determination, support, and the right tools, you can make great strides in life – academically, socially, and professionally!

References

• Pauc, R. (2005). Comorbidity of dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette’s syndrome in children: A prospective epidemiological study. Clinical Chiropractic, 8(4), 189-198. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1479235405000805
• Gialluisi, A., Andlauer, T. F., Moll, K., Becker, J., Hoffmann, P., Ludwig, K. U., Czamara, D., Pourcain, B. S., Honbolygó, F., Tóth, D., Csépe, V., Huguet, G., Chaix, Y., Iannuzzi, S., Demonet, J., Morris, A. P., Hulslander, J., Willcutt, E. G., DeFries, J. C., & Nöthen, M. M. (2021). Genome-wide association study reveals new insights into the heritability and genetic correlates of developmental dyslexia. Molecular Psychiatry, 26(7), 3004-3017. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00898-x
• Theodoridou, D., Christodoulides, P., Zakopoulou, V., & Syrrou, M. (2021). Developmental dyslexia: Environment matters. Brain Sciences, 11(6). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11060782
• Hensler, B. S., Schatschneider, C., Taylor, J., & Wagner, R. K. (2010). Behavioral genetic approach to the study of dyslexia. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 31(7), 525. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e3181ee4b70
• Goodwin, G. M. (2015). The overlap between anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 17(3), 249-260. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.3/ggoodwin
• Siviero, M. O., Rysovas, E. O., Juliano, Y., Del Porto, J. A., & Bertolucci, P. H. (2002). Eye-hand preference dissociation in obsessive-compulsive disorder and dyslexia. Arquivos De Neuro-Psiquiatria, 60(2-A), 242–245. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1590/s0004-282×2002000200011
• Gruner, P., & Pittenger, C. (2017). Cognitive inflexibility in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Neuroscience, 345, 243. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.07.030
• Smith-Spark, J. H., & Gordon, R. (2022). Automaticity and executive abilities in developmental dyslexia: A theoretical review. Brain Sciences, 12(4). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12040446
• Pallanti, S., Grassi, G., Sarrecchia, E. D., Cantisani, A., & Pellegrini, M. (2010). Obsessive–compulsive disorder comorbidity: Clinical assessment and therapeutic implications. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00070
• Zoccolotti, P., Luca, M. D., & Marinelli, C. V. (2021). Interpreting developmental surface dyslexia within a comorbidity perspective. Brain Sciences, 11(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11121568
• K. Shaw, S. C., Hennessy, L. R., Okorie, M., & Anderson, J. L. (2018). Safe and effective prescribing with dyslexia. BMC Medical Education, 19. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1709-5
• Brown, M., & Marshall, K. (2006). Cognitive behavior therapy and people with learning disabilities: implications for developing nursing practice. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 13(2), 234–241. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2006.00947.x
• McKay, D., Sookman, D., Neziroglu, F., Wilhelm, S., Stein, D. J., Kyrios, M., Matthews, K., Veale, D., & Accreditation Task Force of The Canadian Institute for Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (2015). Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatry Research, 227(1), 104–113. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.02.004
• Bonte, M. L., & Blomert, L. (2004). Developmental dyslexia: ERP correlates with anomalous phonological processing during spoken word recognition. Brain research. Cognitive Brain Research, 21(3), 360–376. Retrieve from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.06.010
• Law, C., & Boisseau, C. L. (2019). Exposure and Response Prevention in the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Current Perspectives. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 12, 1167–1174. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S211117
• Bluett, E. J., Homan, K. J., Morrison, K. L., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2014). Acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety and OCD spectrum disorders: An empirical review. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 28(6), 612–624. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.06.008
• Brown, F. J., & Hooper, S. (2009). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with a learning-disabled young person experiencing anxious and obsessive thoughts. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities,13(3), 195–201. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1744629509346173