In a blog post, the cartoon creator Adams wrote, ‘‘As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia.’’
NEW YORK: Dilbert creator Scott Adams has regained his voice after 18 months.
In a blog post, the cartoon creator Adams wrote, ‘‘As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia.’’
He explained that “essentially a part of the brain that controls speech shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.”
Adams, certified hypnotist, asked his doctor – a specialist – how many people have ever gotten better. Answer: zero.
While there was no cure, he was told, painful Botox injections through the front of the neck and into the vocal cords could stop spasms for a few months. They weakens the muscles that otherwise spasm, but the voice is breathy and weak, he was told.
The weirdest part, he writes, is that people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk.
In his case, he could do normal professional speaking to large crowds but could barely whisper and grunt off-stage.
He stopped getting the Botox shots as although they allowed him to talk for a few weeks, his voice was too weak for public speaking.
His family and friends read his lips, he said.
Adams, who's interests include tennis, vegetarian food, eating at his restaurants, and petting cats, explained that he used self-hypnosis, voice therapy exercises, spoke in higher pitches, or changing pitches.
“I tried singing some words that were especially hard,” said Adams, who was born and raised in Windham, New York, in the Catskill Mountains.
Dilbert is published in over 2,000 newspapers, in 65 countries.
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