I scored on your test 20 a total left hander but this is not the case and I dont think you have enough questions to give a valid result. I hold a tennis racket and all rackets for that matter right handed, I play golf right handed, I take a right handed stance in boxing. I also use a mouse right handed. If I was to arm wrestle I automatically choose my right arm as I feel its stronger but in fact I am stronger in the left. My coordination can have problems sometimes as well For instance when I tried snowboarding they tried the test for stance and said I was a “googley” (I think thats the phrase!),. When I tried it on the slopes it didnt feel right in my mind I could picture myself going down in the direction. So I tried that way and that didnt feel right either. I ended up going down the slop in all sorts of directions backwards, forwards and mainly on the edge of the board with both feet paralel whilst trying to work out which foot is best at the front.

As you can imagine I gave up after a while and spent the rest of the time in the bar at the end of the run!!.

The problem that I have always had and has now become so detrimental to me that I have been off work for the last 5 months is that I am always very anxious. The doctors are saying I have GAD(genralised anxiety disorder) which I am now doing CB therapy for. But I have often felt it is more than that and has something to do with my mixed-handedness confusing the brain.

My dad has the same problems with anxiety and so did my nan. My dad is also mixed handed but I call him cack handed as unlike me cannot work out which hand to use on some things. Its hilarious watching him fish as the rod goes from on hand to the other whilst trying to reel as fish in as he cant work out which seems to feel right.

He writes right handed but my mum thinks he was possibly left handed but was forced to write right handed as was the ‘fashion’ at the time. This would possibly explain his stutter, that was apparently a lot worse when he was younger but less severe as he got older due to the brain being confused. Also his possible dylexia although he has never been tested and also his confusion with words when talking with sometimes hilarious results and us all trying to work out the word he actually meant.

I dont know if my nan was mixed handed as she died when I was young.

Its interesting to read some of the other comments on here such a Sarah at the top of the page of the page saying she is having problems figuring out what to do with her life as I am exactly the same, my brain is constantly racing and its so all consuming and difficult to calm it down that it stops me from concentrating on life and at 36 I still do not know who I really am and what I am supposed to be doing with my life and in what direction. I only know I am missing out on it because I cannot switch off and the only way I normally can do that is to sleep which I do way to much and I mean a lot! A trate that my dad has and my nan apparently also had.

I personally think it is all to do with me being mixed handed as my mind is to switched on getting to many messages from both sides of the brain and confusing it. I also as someone else mentioned on here can solve complex problems but stumble on simple ones, I also spend to much time trying to solve problems as someone else mentioned I should be able to solve any problem.

This does however have one benifit that as fault finding engineer I am extreamly good at my job. But for relationships it has a detrimental effect as if my partner has a problem I try to solve them for them.
(1) some feel I am trying to control them by telling them this is what you do to solve it, which is not true I am trying my best to help as I can see a clear solution and if they dont follow it thats upto them
(2) If they do help to sort out there problems they have no need for me any more and break up with me, and usually the next person they meet they end up marrying as there problems are sorted and they are in a good place. (you can imagine how that makes me feel and vow each time not to do the same, but I am a problem solver).

I also as others have mentioned read things wrong sometimes by reading it way to quick and type type to fast and am constanly on the delete button. So apologies for the spelling.

I dont know if there has been enough research onto the effects of mixed handedness. BUt I do feel my problems I have at the moment are related to it. if anyone does know of any studies that have been done on it that may be of relevance or any that are going on now, could you let me know. As I really want to sort my life out and if this is a I suspect related to my problems a better understanding of it or indeed helping in a study of it may help to cope with it.

Left hand: strike a match, open metal latches and door handles, shoot a rifle (because I am left-eye dominant), sweep with a broom, casting in fishing

Right: writing, &c. due to the way I was raised.

All my left-hand activities are self-taught, while my right hand activities tend to be from parenting style and cultural predilections. At work, the desk I’m given has the drawers on the right hand side. For my personal work desk at home, I put pull-out things like drawer handles on the left side. I consider myself right-hand dominant (+0.5 on test), actually mixed, but inevitably choose my left hand for activities where I would have to train myself. Retraining myself to use the other hand that somebody else has already taught me simply leads to confusion and indecisiveness, so I stick to whichever side “gains the upper hand” when it’s first taught, either by myself or some authority figure.

regarding your question about brooming/brushing hair – i use a broom in the right-handed fashion (although i can switch with no trouble) but i brush my hair with both hands. it just always seemed more natural to mean to brush the left side with my left hand and the right side with my right hand. i brush the hair on the back of my head with my right hand, though.

i’m wondering how representative this test actually is. it seems to me like 10 tasks is not sufficient, because there are many things not on the test that could be done with the opposite hand. according to the test-makers, if even one task is done with the other hand, then that is sufficient for mixed-handedness. but if someone did all of those tasks with one hand, and yet did other tasks not on the test with their other hand, could they really not be considered mixed-handed? what is it about those particular tasks that apparently makes them so foolproof in determining handedness? we’ve already established that some may not be reliable.

some things i do with my left hand (which i never even noticed until i became interested in handedness) – peeling hard-boiled eggs/oranges/bananas, picking up small objects, arm-wrestling (i think my left arm is stronger than my right in general), unicycling (i lead with my left foot), putting on pants, catching a frisbee (just noticed that one yesterday!). i may be overrepresenting the degree of my mixed-handedness because of my desire to be mixed-handed – because i focus so much on it, every single tiny thing i do with my left hand gets logged in a box in my brain. then i take it out and look at it and think “wow, this is a lot!” but someone who isn’t so focused on this may not think that they do anything with their non-dominant hand. perhaps most people do some insignificant things with their non-dominant hand, and i just tend to notice the insignificant things and blow them up in my mind.

in addition, i apparently was a left-handed baby, which i find interesting. i’ve read that handedness is not set in stone until age 2 (or 3?), but that 70% of people show a clear preference for their future dominant hand even when they are a newborn (for example, turning their head more to one side than the other). but my mom told me that i almost exclusively favored my left hand. i held things in my left hand, and drew with my left hand. then around age 2 i suddenly switched. my mom also said that she and my dad read somewhere that this means that it reflected the development of the respective hemispheres of my brain. not sure if that’s true (i’ve searched for info and haven’t found any)…does anyone else know anything about this?

i believe that it’s interesting to see how disorders and personality relate to this. i have been diagnosed with adhd, ocd, depression, and anxiety. i’m interested in everything, particularly science and art. i am a “writer” who is majoring in “creative writing” in addition to majoring in neuroscience. i love to draw and make music also. myers-briggs=INFP. no difficulties with discriminating between left and right directions, although i tend to have a terrible sense of direction in general and get lost frequently. not clumsy, have a good sense of balance (master pogo-sticker). good at drawing realistically. good at generally being a slobby sloth. self-absorbed, clearly. i have always been very adept at every subject in school; there was never really anything i wasn’t good at.

i apologize for the rambling nature of this comment; i have a tendency to get carried away, and also i am suffering from intense sleep deprivation/headache madness.