Speech Difficulty (dysarthria) - Autoimmune Cerebellar Ataxia

Thank you for your thoughtful informative reply to me. I have had multiple ENTs tell me speech pathology therapy would not help me. I have a friend who can only speak with difficulty in a whisper. She has been to speech therapy with multiple pathologists for several years. None of it helped one but. She has seen a dozen doctors and no one can explain the cause of her voice deficiency which she awoke with overnight one night. Perhaps she too has auto immune cause. Her father had PMR.

I have IBM,a muscular disorder, that has given me a swallowing problem and speech challenges. I work with a Speech Therapist.

The saliva buildup can be, and is, troublesome. I take a medication to dry my mouth.

I live in Barcelona, Spain.

abuela4

I sound slow, but my brain works fast. It’s very frustrating. I went to a speech language pathologist for a few months.
I kind of graduated, meaning there’s no more they can do for me. Maybe it’s time to go back.

I'm sorry you you guys haven't found anything that has helped. Voice disorders can be a complicated to identify the origin. Extreme stress, PTSD, anxiety etc. can cause voice disorders in some cases and people find that the onset is sudden.
While I respect ENT and other physicians expertise and training they typically are not well versed in the treatment and therapy SLPs provide and not just voice related just in general. For voice disorders like yours its important to see an SLP that specializes in voice disorders because while the average SLP may be able to do voice therapy basics they may not have access or knowledge to all the modalities an treatment techniques available. Your ENT is likely speaking in regards to fixing or improving your voice like the Botox did when you were able to get it done. Therapy is highly dependent on the individual, an SLP won't fix/cure a voice disorder but they will work with you on techniques and modalities to improve communication which might not necessarily be verbal/voiced. Treatment may focus on alternative ways to communicate to help maintain an individual's quality of life and participation in socialization. It's important when meeting with an SLP for the fist time is to have clear expectations of the goal of the therapy. Another aspect of going to an SLP is the time they are able to spend on really educating patients. Physicians just don't have the time to spend providing in depth training due to the way the medical system works. There techniques like vocal hygiene that can help with comfort and taking care of you voice. Depending on where you live there may be a clinic that specializes in voice disorders. I live in Oregon and there is a large university hospital here that has a state of the art voice and swallowing institute where ENTs, GI's, and SLPs all work in the same clinic allowing them to work together and consult each other. Not everyone may have access to something like this but I recommend it to many patients who need specialized treatment.

Your experience is not uncommon for individuals with spasmodic dysphonia. While Botox can be a very effective treatment there is also a lot of room for error because the area around our vocal folds is also responsible for keeping things out of our airway. That must have been a scary experience to go through choking on your saliva. Spasmodic dysphonia is a dysfunction of the vocal folds so they don't close together while speaking causing too much air to escape through the vocal folds when phonating. There certainly are autoimmune disorders that can cause voice disorders and other speech and language impairments. There are a few things that can lead to SD to the nervous system causing tremors in the body, dystonia a brain disorder that causes muscles to be very tight and in more rare cases prolonged severely prolonged exposure to stress. SD can certainly be connected to autoimmune disorders depending on the symptoms.
It's unfortunate that people equate speech ability with cognitive function. This is very common for individuals with variety of speech and language impairments. I highly recommend seeing a speech language pathologist if you haven't already done so recently. You can get a referral from you ENT. There are some fabulous clinics around the US that specialize in voice disorders which I highly recommend. While SD is not curable it is possible to learn techniques and strategies that can improve communication.

THANKYOU, I HAVE IT, MY BOSS IS NOT VERY NICE , SAYS SHE CANT HEAR ME VERY WELL. I HAVE, LIVED WITH SPASMODIC VOICE FOR MY WHOLE ADULT LIFE I AM 65