Welcome to the forum!

[Nintey]

First of all I would like to welcome you to the Spamodic Dysphonia forum. I set this forum up to allow other people with SD to share their stories, views, treatments and get support from other SD sufferers. I found that there was a lack of support out there for people with SD in the UK and I didn't want people to feel that they had to struggle on alone with this condition.

I myself have adductor spasmodic dyphonia. I was official diagnosed by a doctor in March 2007, but had first noticed a problem with my voice in about 2002. I worked in a job where I was on the telephone constantly, all day everyday and had been since 1998. I started to notice that the odd word in my sentences started to sound funny and realised if I repeated that particular word, no matter how hard I tried to make it sound 'normal' it wouldn't. At first, I just ignored it and battled on with my speech. But then people started to notice, which made me even more self conscious about this problem.

Over the following years it was a downward spiral from there and the spasms and breaks in my speech became more frequent, nearly ever other word. I started to do some research on the internet to find out what this problem was and I listened to a clip of a patient with SD, I knew instantly this is what I had got. My doctor confirmed this and explained the treatment was botox injections into my vocal chords every three months. I tried this method for about a year but I wasn't getting the desired results so I no longer have them.

At the moment I am just practicing with different exercises and my speech does seem to have improved slightly over the past year, so I will keep persevering. I have read and spoke to some people who have largely overcome SD who are a great inspiration and give me the hope that I may one day be able to overcome SD too.

I hope this forum will be a lifeline for other SD sufferers, we can all fight this battle together.

Donna

[Karl]

Just a quick hi!

I hope this forum attracts people who are suffering from this. It would be great to get to share experiences.

Good luck with the forum.

Karl.

[lost42]

I just found this forum tonight. Thank you for giving SD sufferers a place to see we are not alone.

[Nintey]

Hi Lost42, welcome and I am glad you have found the forum. I hope you will find it beneficial

[Jeanne]

I have not been diagnosed with SD but feel like that I may be in the early stages of this.