Here is a link to Diane Rehm's page at WAMU about her spasmodic dysphonia. Lots of articles about how she is working through it. Here's one short interview in the Washington Post that is linked from the above page:

Diane Rehm
Host, "The Diane Rehm show," WAMU radio

I went to doctor after doctor after doctor, and they all told me that nothing was wrong with my voice, nothing was wrong with my throat or vocal cords and that I didn't have cancer. For something like eight years they told me it was all in my head.

The day came when I had to get off the air. I did my show. It sounded so awful. Afterwards, I had to run downtown to moderate a program on gossip. Three hundred fifty in the audience. Four people on the stage. And I had to moderate this. As soon as it was over, I dashed out of there. I went right back to the studio and said to my boss, "I'm out of here."

I really came as close as people come to having a nervous breakdown. For four months, I simply sat at home on tranquilizers, on muscle relaxants, things to help me just sit peacefully and quietly. I didn't want to talk to anyone because I was so embarrassed. Finally our internist said, "I don't care what these other doctors said, I'm sending her to Johns Hopkins." Within one hour at Johns Hopkins, they diagnosed spasmodic dysphonia. They treat it with Botox injections straight to the vocal cords.

Because I speak as slowly as I do, number one, people who are just learning the language appreciate it so much. And, number two, they tell me that it's so refreshing to have moments to think about what's being said. And they judge me to be thoughtful because my speech is slow.

If you go back, and I have, to some of the shows I did 15 years ago, my voice was quicker, my thoughts flowed more easily. Maybe because I am slower now, I do take more time to think about what I have to say. And maybe in this world of one-second images and rapid-fire conversations, I do offer something that's different and, maybe, better.
-- Interview by Amanda Temple

SRS