I'm out of the closet

Yes, to try and answer your question, I did/have completely lose my voice time and time again. At least 3 or 4 times a year. With Botox it would sometimes come back, however the longest period of time with good voice after a botox injection was 5 months. And the longest time I was without a voice was 10 months.

Having speech therapy does not and will not cure SD, but it can help, and for a lot of folks it is all they ever do as treatment. Botox is a wonderful thing, but has a number of side effects. Such as, strangulation meaning (Asperation)from thin liquids. Having a Whispery, breathy voice for long periods of time. It is sometimes difficult to find experienced doctors who are trained for certain voice disorders and/or Botox Injections. However, things have changed a lot now and doctors are beginning to recongize these disorders more quickly. And it does take some time get the Botox doseage right for each person. It takes a lot of patients and courage to go through the ups and downs of Botox. I mean sometimes the doctor will miss the correct muscle to inject and this means re-peated injections or not get a good effect to be able to properly help the voice like it should. If you do get the whispery/breathy voice and some asperation of liquids, you can feel pretty confident that he/she hit the right location. And depending on your doseage and severity voice, the whispery/breathy voice might last a month or so in that stage and then good voice may follow. Then again it might not effect you at all are you might go back into spasms. I guess I am just making it difficult and confusing, I don't mean too. I'm no professional or doctor here, Just giving my experiences and two cents worth for what it counts.

If I were still having spasms or if I ever need to, I'd have no problem going back to Botox. It is a very personal decision and everyone has there own opinion as to which type of treatment to pursue. I first choose the less invasive forms of treatment before trying Botox. So for me nothing seemed to work, not even speech therapy. It did help, but I couldn't stand the uncertainty or not knowing what to expect next. If there was something out there that would make me even close to normal again, I wanted it. Nothing against speech therapist, just takes practice and a lot of hard work and deication. If fact I am seeing a Speech Therapist at this time to fine tune my vocal skills and re-train my voice to last for longer periods of time without getting so tired or abusing it.

Hope this helps.

I'm a little confused. You list "stranglation" as a side effect of botox. By this I'm assuming you meant to type the word strangulation. In either case, how do you define this side effect? I know people with SD have a "strangled" sounding voice, but I don't understand how it's being defined here as a side effect of botox.

I have modified my post, so please if you don't mind and it is not too long, read it again and see if it makes better since and clears up any confusion. I am sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. Sometimes I can't but the right words together when I'm trying to say something. I agree "strangled" is a totally different descprition or definition. Meaning more of a tighting, almost like you are being choked by someone in the throat. I hope I having totally confuse Michael or any of the others.

Wow! You are so brave to have just let everyone know like that! I admire your courage. What were people's reactions when they were told? How did your boss take it? How have your coworkers reacted? Please let us know if you notice any difference in their actions/attitudes toward you in the coming weeks.

Yes I have had my share, like I most on this board, of rude and hurtful remarks, but I discovered that once I met the dragon head on then it really didn't matter what they said. I stand my ground. However if the comments continue, I remove myself. So far I have lost 4 friends over this, a job, and limited social activity. What I have gain is an inner strength, a better sense of self, and support of the friends that have chosen to be my friends.

As with everything this takes time, but we can get there together.