Weird- mixing up numbers for letters?

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My typing is pretty bad, but I have a habit of pressing numbers when I am thinking of a letter. I am not talking about the numbers at the top of the keyboard either- I mean the number pad. I only use the number pad from habit- I don't use the numbers up top. This habit is from my years of calculating people's pay,

For example, i often type a "6" on the number pad instead of the "p". It has nothing to do with the keyboard itself I think. I think it may be something weird in my brain. I have a couple of forms of synesthesia, so could this be part of that phenomena?

Any ideas?

Sure, why not? If you mix up stuff, why not letters and numbers?

Do you normally use the keypad to type in numbers? If your brain's going "6" when it means "P", then it'd make sense you'd reach for the number pad, if that's what you normally do when you type a 6.

I sometimes find myself typing a number instead of a letter. Many of my words consist of 4's for some reason.

4=a maybe?

Callista it could just be that. It has been bothering me for a while because I do it so much, and in the past few years I have discovered so many neurological difference I have I think I wonder if every quirk has a cause now.

A slight aside. There is an ancient Unix text filter called Talkfilters (version 2.3. that will "translate" a text document to imitate some different styles of speech, for instance Valley-speak, Jive, Brooklyn or Cockney. One of those is warez, an imitation of the spam-filter evasion technique that replaces characters with similar-looking characters. The result is in the second of these two paragraphs.

@ ZLY6h7 azid3. tH3r3 Y5 4n 4|\|k1e]\[T U|\|IX Text ph!1TEr k@l13|) talKf!lTERs (\/3r510gn 2.3. T]-[4T wILl "tr4|\|5147E" 4 TEXt docU]\/[3gnT to !mYt473 Z0M3 |)IFf3ReN7 zTYL3Z oF zP33cH, phOr inZt@nkE valLeY-ZP3ac, jiV3, 8Ro()KLYn 0R C0kcn3y. 0n3 ()ph 7h0sE |s W4R3z, 4n Ymi7AT!()N ()f d4 sP4M-fYl73R 3v4S|()n t3k]-[|\|!qU3 Th@T RePLac3Z kh@rAc73r5 wi7h sYm|LAR-10()CiNg cH@r@cTerS. D4 r3zult !Z I|\| d4 S3c0gnD of THeZ3 TW0 p4RA6RaPhz.

You know, I had no problems reading that!

Whoa...that's crazy. It took a bit of effort to read some of it, though.

I just came across this thread in a google search for 'mixing numbers and letters.' I've had this problem for years, with varying annoying effects. In my brain, the number five (5) is the letter "m", nine (9) is "n", seven (7) is "z" and so forth.

This has caused problems for me since junior high, as far as I can remember. In the most extreme case, I had to repeat pre-algebra because I couldn't deal with the letters and numbers being together. For example, "9n" was "99"... you can imagine how hard that was! Even today, I have trouble with entering passwords that mix letters and numbers. Lately, I have noticed this problem creeping back in, and have to be particularly mindful of typing.

I am not on the autism spectrum and have never been diagnosed with a learning disability such as dyslexia. It's just a weird thing my brain does - I'm actually comforted to read that I'm not alone!

I've been struggling with mixing up numbers and symbols in my algebra class lately. But I can't read that at all!

The only thing I really have problem with is s and 6.

No idea why...sometimes I mean to write 6, but I write s instead...and the other way around. Never happens in typing, just writing.

Oh yeah my old thread! I found that paragraph quite easy to read and still do. I originally switched to Firefox just because it had the spell-check built in to alert me of my crazy typos. I was making myself look bad in the forums prior to that LOL.

I see I am not alone with this foible!

During a football game, when I look at the jerseys, I can remember the names of the players but associating the numbers with the players is very difficult. The name of the player and the number of the player appear on the same jersey.

I mix up letters and numbers when writing sometimes, but pretty much only in handwriting, not in typing. Usually it happens when I'm working in a context of mixed letters and numbers (e.g., dates), and usually the number involved starts with the sound of the letter I'm confusing it.

Attested letter/number substitutions I've made:

T > 2 (2wo, 2oo) [And I don't normally use 2 as an abbreviation]
F > 4 (4eb) (4or)
F > 5 (Room number: P5 128)
E > 8 (1: Postal code: V3T 586) (2: beginning to write 'example')
N > 9 (Postal code: T29 1N4; 'corrected' from T29 19(4))

7 > Z (QZ for 'Question Seven') [Doesn't start with the same sound, but is formed similarly]

And one with a Greek letter:

θ > 3