I Had A Migraine & Woke Up With A Different Accent | BORN DIFFERENT

IMAGINE going to bed one day with a migraine and waking up the following morning speaking in a completely different accent. That's exactly what happened to 27-year-old Verity, who has lived with severe symptoms of functional neurological disorder (FND) since she was 14: "It affects me personally with horrendous migraines, I get paralysis where my left hand curls up and my left leg and foot doesn't work... I black out when I have my seizures." Verity has experienced speech loss alongside her paralysis episodes, where she would be "trying to pronounce a word and then next thing you know I just can't speak." She has tried "every single medication that you could think of" with no luck - meaning she can only manage the symptoms of her migraines with high-strength painkillers and a TENS device. But two years ago, Verity took herself to bed with a severe migraine and woke up unable to speak - this time, when her speech did eventually return, she remembers hearing the voice of "somebody else." A visit to her family doctor with her mum later that day confirmed that Verity was now speaking in a completely different accent - overnight, she had gone from her original midlands accent to sounding like she was from the north east. Verity's mum Gail recalls the moment she heard her daughter talk in her new Geordie accent for the first time: "I admit, me and the doctor were so shocked that we actually started laughing." No matter how hard she tried, Verity could not bring back her old accent - and the change was noticeable: "Straight away, she couldn't say 'mum' - it was 'mam' - and then when she texted me, she realised that her brain wouldn't let her text 'mum'." Having never been to Newcastle or the surrounding area, Verity was as confused as anyone, noticing that it had even changed her "inner monologue" and caused her to dream in her new accent. It took her the best part of the last two years to receive answers from doctors and, in that time, she was regularly accused of faking her condition by people in public and online - after she started posting about her accent change on TikTok. Verity struggled with her confidence due to the backlash - but, finally, just months ago, she received an official diagnosis of foreign accent syndrome (FAS) from a specialist neurologist. This was the "leg to stand on" that Verity needed to deal with doubters and ever since she met another specialist neurologist, Professor Edwards, on TV whilst raising awareness for her condition, he has been supporting her too. His reassurance that FND and FAS are related and are both "a real thing that's happening" has given her the confidence to push on with her advocacy. With renewed confidence and motivation, Verity is more determined than ever to raise awareness around both conditions in order to ensure other young people with invisible disabilities like hers do not face the stigmas and misconceptions she has faced. Her message to those young people? "Just keep going, be proud of yourself and remember that life is really worth living."