Someone close to me has spasmodic dysphonia. He used to be a soul/jazz singer, with a quite extraordinary voice, able to mimic anything and everything too.

It's almost destroyed him to have this condition....and he now has Botox injections for it, which do bring his voice back for a few months at a time. For the first few weeks it's hard to swallow, and drinking anything makes you cough, but then things start to settle down.

Often the only way people with this condition can speak is to use the higher vocal chords, so you get a Minnie Mouse kind of voice, which causes far less pain when speaking.

It's also associated with the same part of the brain which causes stuttering...and is so very often linked with nerves and a nervous disposition.

What really makes me angry though is that when the Botox starts to wear off, and the croaky voice comes back, people talk to him as if he's 'simple' or has something mentally wrong with him.

It's a very very hard thing for sufferers to deal with and it starts off a vicious circle of acute nervousness when speaking, which can sometimes lead to people not wanting to go out, because communicating becomes so very hard for them and they just can't take the odd looks.