• 2 months ago
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."
Transcript
00:00My rare condition caused my accent to change.
00:02I had a Midlands accent my whole life.
00:04I see a bit more of the blonde hair and when I'm like,
00:06ooh, it was very, like, white.
00:08I woke up with a Newcastle accent.
00:09This isn't actually, like, my original accent.
00:11I didn't know what was happening.
00:13I was absolutely terrified.
00:15People regularly call me a liar
00:16or see that I'm feeding it for attention.
00:18People have laughed in my face, they've shouted at me.
00:21I've had vile comments.
00:23I'm really struggling to deal with it right now.
00:26This is my antidepressant for the vaccine
00:28because my brain's malfunctioning,
00:30so that's why I have to take it.
00:32DOG BARKS
00:34I have functional neurological disorder
00:37and foreign accent syndrome.
00:39Ma'am, do you want a vegan sandwich?
00:41Yes, please. Yes? Perfect.
00:42FND is where the brain and nervous system
00:45isn't connected properly.
00:47The messages that should be going to your body
00:49don't always go there.
00:52It affects me personally with horrendous migraines.
00:55I get paralysis where, like, my left hand goes, like, curled up
01:01and my left leg and foot doesn't work.
01:03So, like, I can't really...
01:05No, that's probably the most I can move it.
01:08And then my leg.
01:10That's, like, as much as I can lift it.
01:12And it hurts.
01:14I would say my migraines got severely worse
01:16when I was about 14.
01:18I was in a wheelchair for a long time.
01:20It was literally, like, every day.
01:22I black out when I have my seizures,
01:24so I'd, like, wake up and I'm, like, being sick.
01:27It can be that severe that I end up in hospital for days.
01:31She was having up to 13 seizures a day
01:34and it's been really, really scary at times.
01:38And then she then gets paralysed on her left side,
01:42so that's why she can't work.
01:45With my paralysis and speech loss,
01:47I'll be trying to pronounce a word and I just can't get it out.
01:51And the next thing you know, I just can't speak.
02:04Try and say something. What's your name?
02:10It affected my confidence massively
02:13because now I can't really go anywhere on my own.
02:16It just completely took all my independence away.
02:19I'm really struggling to deal with it right now.
02:2126 years old, like, should be the best time of my life,
02:24and it's turned to, like, I'm just poorly all the time.
02:27It completely changed me as a person, really.
02:29Changed my life entirely.
02:31No treatments have ever worked.
02:34I've tried every single medication that you can think of.
02:38You just have to take each day as they come and do what you can.
02:42A migraine attack can happen at any point,
02:44so there's two things I always take everywhere with me.
02:47First one is my migraine TENS machine.
02:50Stick it on here.
02:51It kind of, like, pulsates,
02:53and it's like it's fighting against the migraine pain.
02:56And then the other one, it's a really strong ibuprofen.
02:59When it does work, it can really, really help the pain.
03:02You hungry?
03:04If you look at me, it looks like there's nothing wrong with me,
03:07but anything can happen at any time.
03:10And then, obviously, with the accent, that was, like, really...
03:14That was a massive change,
03:16because it was like I was a completely different person.
03:19So I'm going to show you a video of what I used to sound like,
03:22my old accent.
03:23I don't know.
03:24Obviously, you know the placement better than me,
03:26but it's just so that, like, you can see a bit more of the blonde in it
03:29and when I'm like...
03:30I believe that F&D was the cause of my foreign accent syndrome.
03:34It probably needs doing again, but it's kind of reddish, so...
03:37They were like, oh, no, you're lying, ha-ha.
03:40And I was like, oh, no, slow down, serious.
03:42I could see, like, the aura, like, the vision going for a migraine,
03:46so I was like, I'm going to go back to bed, just sleep it off.
03:49And when I woke up, my speech had gone,
03:53and as it was coming back, all I could hear was just somebody else.
03:57You hungry, Mags?
03:59So I went to the doctor's and she just went...
04:02I was terrified, I started crying, I didn't know who it was,
04:05I'd lost my identity.
04:07People that I'd known for so long, like, I start speaking and they're like...
04:12It's like meeting everybody for the first time again.
04:14God, this is like...
04:16When her accent changed and we were in the doctor's
04:19and she suddenly came out with this different accent,
04:22I admit, me and the doctor were, like, so shocked
04:25that we actually started laughing,
04:28because we didn't quite know how to deal with it.
04:31Unless you'd been there, you would not believe it.
04:35After the accent changed, straight away, she couldn't say,
04:38Mom, it was Mam.
04:40And then when she came to text me,
04:43she realised that her brain wouldn't let her text Mom.
04:47It was Mam.
04:48I say no, she says...
04:50I say no.
04:51No.
04:53And the doctor said, have you ever been up there?
04:56Nope.
04:59It's changed, but in a monologue, in a dream, Mama Geordie,
05:03it was as if it was, like, always meant to happen.
05:07The one I'm going to show you now,
05:09I did, like, a little storytime thing
05:11and it was the first one I ever posted.
05:13Tell me something about yourself that nobody believes.
05:16I was absolutely terrified of posting it,
05:19but it just went mad, it went, like, viral.
05:22And I wasn't expecting it at all,
05:24because I didn't have, like, any followers,
05:26I'd never posted before.
05:27This next video is the comparison,
05:29so the first part of it is my accent now.
05:32Yeah, you'll be able to hear it, so enjoy.
05:34And then I show my accent before.
05:36I was not putting all of them in, just putting, like, a few in.
05:39Someone was like, this is actually so scary,
05:41no-one's got any answers for why this has happened.
05:43I want to spread awareness for the condition online
05:46because I want to stop stigmas.
05:48The misconceptions is just all that they all think I'm faking it,
05:51and I'm not.
05:54The negative comments are horrible,
05:57really affected my confidence,
05:59because I didn't ask for any of this to happen to me.
06:01There's always going to be people out there that don't understand
06:03and don't agree and have their own opinions,
06:05but I would prefer it if they kept it to themselves.
06:09I always think that it says a lot more about them than it does me.
06:15It's been a while since I've seen you.
06:17I know, it's been so long.
06:21But it's just been, you know, the same as usual,
06:23the lost speech, the accent's obviously still here.
06:26I'm not working anymore at the minute.
06:28People ask, my fatigue's got really, really bad recently.
06:31I met Professor Edwards by actually going on the telly
06:34and talking about my condition before.
06:37He worded things in a way that I could understand
06:40and people without F&D and FES can understand as well.
06:45The foreign accent syndrome is something that can happen
06:48as part of the kind of same thing that's gone wrong in the brain
06:51that causes your paralysis and your tremor.
06:54That's a real thing that's happening.
06:56Why do you think there was that stigma of people faking F&D?
07:00Because I've had people see it to me and they've seen my symptoms.
07:04I even had a paramedic see that he thought I was faking my seizures.
07:08It's just lack of knowledge and sometimes just an assumption
07:12that if a scan is normal,
07:14then the only explanation is that it's just pretend.
07:17I think that's such a nice way you've put it.
07:20Just because it looks different doesn't mean it's not happening.
07:23I'm loads more confident now I have the diagnosis
07:26when dealing with ignorant and nasty people
07:29because it's like having a leg to stand on.
07:33It was important because it was proof that it can happen.
07:37This is why it's happening.
07:39It's on my medical records. It's real.
07:41So shut up.
07:44It wouldn't have been as easy without you. Definitely not.
07:48I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.
07:51It's an absolute pleasure and all credit to you
07:54for keeping going through all of this.
07:57Thanks so much, Rosie. Take care. Thank you. Yeah, and you.
08:00Bye. Bye.
08:04Go on, Max. Go on, Max.
08:08My mum's love and support has been so important
08:11and she's honestly kept me going.
08:13She's my rock. I don't know what I would have done without her.
08:18I think as my confidence has grown, so has hers,
08:21it's like we've kind of beaten it together.
08:26She's never let me feel lonely with my disability.
08:30Every time going to the hospital, you've always been there.
08:33Every time seeing doctors, consultants, specialists,
08:36we've always been there. Yeah.
08:38I'm so proud of her, the way she's come through it
08:41and the way she copes and accepts that she is different.
08:47But sometimes difference's good.
08:50My hopes and goals and ambitions for the future
08:53is to carry on raising awareness,
08:55not just for my own disability but for other people's.
08:58I think it's so important, like, the amount of horrible comments
09:01I've had of people has been crazy
09:04and I don't want that to happen for anyone else.
09:08I feel like the best way to get through something
09:10isn't to go around it, it's to go through it,
09:13it's to deal with it and to accept that this is happening.
09:16Just keep going, be proud of yourself
09:18and remember that life is really worth living.

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