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Does anyone have a persistent problem (onset as an adult some time after you got really sick) with slurred speech (aka dysarthria)?
Yes. Much better now but still get it sometimes.
Quite bad in the first year or so but much better now.
What made it better?Yes, same for me
My speech is almost always slurred. The more horse I am, the clearer it is. I can sing actually, but many cant understand me on the phone. I think it used to be a bit worse. But speech therapy has not been helpful. I mean it's really embarrassing & ppl treat me like I'm stupid but I'm far from stupid, without disclosing more personal stuff abt me, I'm quite sure. It seems my extreme np fluctuations affect the articulation. I used to have perfect diction. I know the speech itself won't kill me but I'm concerned what's causing it & why it just won't get better. I have some slurred speech all the time. It started with my mom noticing I was pronouncing some words wrong. I thought she just didn't realize I moved away for my job & didn't have her accent. But she was right & it got worse & worse along with my facial muscles not expressive and my big eyes droopy and one sometime stuck shut all day! So I also started having some movement issues. Ok a bunch of stuff was going wrong & I'd have to go through mounds of records & my calendars & figure out if I could pinpoint what changed, if anything. It does get worse on somedays but it's never normal except I've had a few times where it was almost normal for several hours. Any clues? I mean don't your Drs notice? What do they say?YES!!! I thought I was the only one. It plagues me toward nightfall on sick days. I wake in the morning: my voice is loud and my diction is sharp. Toward evening, esp. on a bad/fatigue/crash-y day people start asking me to repeat myself; indeed, I feel like I am talking through a mouth full of marbles... It feels like my tongue has grown too big... then in the morning I am back to normal
What do your Drs say? Can ppl understand u on the phone? Do u ever have normal speech? Mine is an articulation problem. It's not like a word retrieval issue. Is yours the same? If u want to tell me more abt your case, u can message me if ur not comfortable sharing here. As I said I know it won't kill me itself, but I've been told it's a bad sign along with my other issues, but i just think they haven't gotten to the bottom of this and have been treating symptoms. It's impossible to get a dr to listen when ur speech is bad & u have a systemic problem with a lot of issues. I don't know what to do at this point. They listened before when I had normal speech and I was someone important like they are...I have had this for about 25 years and it got worse as the illness progressed. I have to put a lot of effort sometimes in to speaking as clearly as I can. Before I got really sick with ME I wondered whether I had some kind of lazy tongue or something. Also, it reminds me of the feeling I get in my hands, lack of dexterity. I often have thought that I wouldn't be good at playing the piano because of that.
Thx, I get all that. I can sing, but not speak clearly. It's not my lungs, although I am having a lung issue for the first time right now. I've had speech therapy 4 times. I dont want to just accept it. I have my little "speech" (a sensitive word!) I give ppl abt my speech and how to understand me. I drink tons of water & get hydration. I am trained to breath from singing. It's not abt strategies- it's abt the cause. I want to know if ppl have articulation problems and if any Drs have told them why. I think it's related to BP fluctuations (or that makes it worse) & my facial muscles. But why? A brain mri showed I have a tiny lesion on my pons that the Drs just watch & think I was maybe born with & has nothing to do with all this, but I had an mri before I got sick and didn't have it. Ok sorry for typos. It's hard to see well & im in my window when I can type with my index finger.The coordination and precision needed for clear speech and voice are huge.... Plus you need good breath support and control. Exhausted muscles do not make for good clarity and voice quality!
Also, any dryness will exacerbate issues with voice...
(Writing with my speech therapist hat on!)
My top tips are
1. Slow rate of speech
2. Short phrases/sentences with plenty of pauses for breath
3. Reduce background noise to a minimum and sit close to the person you are speaking with.
4. Have a glass of water to hand for regular sips
What made it better?Yes, same for me
I never saw a doctor about it. I think it was one of the very early signs of ME that I experienced even before mild ME kicked in 1994/95. I experience it as a kind of exhaustion and it restricts me from talking a lot. Some days I can talk reasonably fine and then the exhaustion sets in and I have to rest the voice. I have both articulation and word retrieval issues.What do your Drs say? Can ppl understand u on the phone? Do u ever have normal speech? Mine is an articulation problem. It's not like a word retrieval issue. Is yours the same? If u want to tell me more abt your case, u can message me if ur not comfortable sharing here. As I said I know it won't kill me itself, but I've been told it's a bad sign along with my other issues, but i just think they haven't gotten to the bottom of this and have been treating symptoms. It's impossible to get a dr to listen when ur speech is bad & u have a systemic problem with a lot of issues. I don't know what to do at this point. They listened before when I had normal speech and I was someone important like they are...
Mostly time I think. The pattern of my illness, and that of my two children, was increasing severity for the first 6 months then a gradual improvement for the next 6 months, then an undulating pattern around a plateau. So, the slurred speech was worst when all of the symptoms were worst.What made it better?
Yes, I get hoarseness.