Dilbert creator and recent addition to the Blogosphere Scott Adams has been diagnosed with a permanent speech condition called Spasmodic Dystonia or Dysphonia. No, he’s not kidding.
WebMD describes the condition this way:
Spasmodic dysphonia is a voice disorder characterized by momentary periods of uncontrolled vocal spasms, tightness in the throat, and/or recurrent hoarseness. At certain times, affected individuals must make a conscious effort to speak. The most frequent sign of this disorder is a sudden, momentary lapse or interruption of the voice. Spasmodic dysphonia is a form of dystonia, a group of neurological movement disorders characterized by involuntary muscle spasms.
There are two types of spasmodic dysphonia: Abductor spasmodic dysphonia and the more common adductor spasmodic dysphonia. The cause of spasmodic dysphonia is not known.
Adams describes it thusly:
. . . the vocal cords going nuts on their own. The net effect is that while I can give a speech to a crowd of 5,000 people, I generally can̢۪t utter more than a hoarse whisper to someone one-on-one. It̢۪s like a stutterer who can sing okay but can̢۪t talk normally.
How awful. Fortunately, his career is built almost entirely on the written word. But his real life isn’t.
The NIH has quite a bit of information on Dystonia generally, which affects different body parts in radically different ways.
