00:00My rare condition caused my accent to change.
00:02I had a Midlands accent my whole life.
00:04I see a bit more of the blonde hair and when I'm like,
00:06ooh, it was very, like, white.
00:08I woke up with a Newcastle accent.
00:09This isn't actually, like, my original accent.
00:11I didn't know what was happening.
00:13I was absolutely terrified.
00:15People regularly call me a liar
00:16or see that I'm feeding it for attention.
00:18People have laughed in my face, they've shouted at me.
00:21I've had vile comments.
00:23I'm really struggling to deal with it right now.
00:26This is my antidepressant for the vaccine
00:28because my brain's malfunctioning,
00:30so that's why I have to take it.
00:32DOG BARKS
00:34I have functional neurological disorder
00:37and foreign accent syndrome.
00:39Ma'am, do you want a vegan sandwich?
00:41Yes, please. Yes? Perfect.
00:42FND is where the brain and nervous system
00:45isn't connected properly.
00:47The messages that should be going to your body
00:49don't always go there.
00:52It affects me personally with horrendous migraines.
00:55I get paralysis where, like, my left hand goes, like, curled up
01:01and my left leg and foot doesn't work.
01:03So, like, I can't really...
01:05No, that's probably the most I can move it.
01:08And then my leg.
01:10That's, like, as much as I can lift it.
01:12And it hurts.
01:14I would say my migraines got severely worse
01:16when I was about 14.
01:18I was in a wheelchair for a long time.
01:20It was literally, like, every day.
01:22I black out when I have my seizures,
01:24so I'd, like, wake up and I'm, like, being sick.
01:27It can be that severe that I end up in hospital for days.
01:31She was having up to 13 seizures a day
01:34and it's been really, really scary at times.
01:38And then she then gets paralysed on her left side,
01:42so that's why she can't work.
01:45With my paralysis and speech loss,
01:47I'll be trying to pronounce a word and I just can't get it out.
01:51And the next thing you know, I just can't speak.
02:04Try and say something. What's your name?
02:10It affected my confidence massively
02:13because now I can't really go anywhere on my own.
02:16It just completely took all my independence away.
02:19I'm really struggling to deal with it right now.
02:2126 years old, like, should be the best time of my life,
02:24and it's turned to, like, I'm just poorly all the time.
02:27It completely changed me as a person, really.
02:29Changed my life entirely.
02:31No treatments have ever worked.
02:34I've tried every single medication that you can think of.
02:38You just have to take each day as they come and do what you can.
02:42A migraine attack can happen at any point,
02:44so there's two things I always take everywhere with me.
02:47First one is my migraine TENS machine.
02:50Stick it on here.
02:51It kind of, like, pulsates,
02:53and it's like it's fighting against the migraine pain.
02:56And then the other one, it's a really strong ibuprofen.
02:59When it does work, it can really, really help the pain.
03:02You hungry?
03:04If you look at me, it looks like there's nothing wrong with me,
03:07but anything can happen at any time.
03:10And then, obviously, with the accent, that was, like, really...
03:14That was a massive change,
03:16because it was like I was a completely different person.
03:19So I'm going to show you a video of what I used to sound like,
03:22my old accent.
03:23I don't know.
03:24Obviously, you know the placement better than me,
03:26but it's just so that, like, you can see a bit more of the blonde in it
03:29and when I'm like...
03:30I believe that F&D was the cause of my foreign accent syndrome.
03:34It probably needs doing again, but it's kind of reddish, so...
03:37They were like, oh, no, you're lying, ha-ha.
03:40And I was like, oh, no, slow down, serious.
03:42I could see, like, the aura, like, the vision going for a migraine,
03:46so I was like, I'm going to go back to bed, just sleep it off.
03:49And when I woke up, my speech had gone,
03:53and as it was coming back, all I could hear was just somebody else.
03:57You hungry, Mags?
03:59So I went to the doctor's and she just went...
04:02I was terrified, I started crying, I didn't know who it was,
04:05I'd lost my identity.
04:07People that I'd known for so long, like, I start speaking and they're like...
04:12It's like meeting everybody for the first time again.
04:14God, this is like...
04:16When her accent changed and we were in the doctor's
04:19and she suddenly came out with this different accent,
04:22I admit, me and the doctor were, like, so shocked
04:25that we actually started laughing,
04:28because we didn't quite know how to deal with it.
04:31Unless you'd been there, you would not believe it.
04:35After the accent changed, straight away, she couldn't say,
04:38Mom, it was Mam.
04:40And then when she came to text me,
04:43she realised that her brain wouldn't let her text Mom.
04:47It was Mam.
04:48I say no, she says...
04:50I say no.
04:51No.
04:53And the doctor said, have you ever been up there?
04:56Nope.
04:59It's changed, but in a monologue, in a dream, Mama Geordie,
05:03it was as if it was, like, always meant to happen.
05:07The one I'm going to show you now,
05:09I did, like, a little storytime thing
05:11and it was the first one I ever posted.
05:13Tell me something about yourself that nobody believes.
05:16I was absolutely terrified of posting it,
05:19but it just went mad, it went, like, viral.
05:22And I wasn't expecting it at all,
05:24because I didn't have, like, any followers,
05:26I'd never posted before.
05:27This next video is the comparison,
05:29so the first part of it is my accent now.
05:32Yeah, you'll be able to hear it, so enjoy.
05:34And then I show my accent before.
05:36I was not putting all of them in, just putting, like, a few in.
05:39Someone was like, this is actually so scary,
05:41no-one's got any answers for why this has happened.
05:43I want to spread awareness for the condition online
05:46because I want to stop stigmas.
05:48The misconceptions is just all that they all think I'm faking it,
05:51and I'm not.
05:54The negative comments are horrible,
05:57really affected my confidence,
05:59because I didn't ask for any of this to happen to me.
06:01There's always going to be people out there that don't understand
06:03and don't agree and have their own opinions,
06:05but I would prefer it if they kept it to themselves.
06:09I always think that it says a lot more about them than it does me.
06:15It's been a while since I've seen you.
06:17I know, it's been so long.
06:21But it's just been, you know, the same as usual,
06:23the lost speech, the accent's obviously still here.
06:26I'm not working anymore at the minute.
06:28People ask, my fatigue's got really, really bad recently.
06:31I met Professor Edwards by actually going on the telly
06:34and talking about my condition before.
06:37He worded things in a way that I could understand
06:40and people without F&D and FES can understand as well.
06:45The foreign accent syndrome is something that can happen
06:48as part of the kind of same thing that's gone wrong in the brain
06:51that causes your paralysis and your tremor.
06:54That's a real thing that's happening.
06:56Why do you think there was that stigma of people faking F&D?
07:00Because I've had people see it to me and they've seen my symptoms.
07:04I even had a paramedic see that he thought I was faking my seizures.
07:08It's just lack of knowledge and sometimes just an assumption
07:12that if a scan is normal,
07:14then the only explanation is that it's just pretend.
07:17I think that's such a nice way you've put it.
07:20Just because it looks different doesn't mean it's not happening.
07:23I'm loads more confident now I have the diagnosis
07:26when dealing with ignorant and nasty people
07:29because it's like having a leg to stand on.
07:33It was important because it was proof that it can happen.
07:37This is why it's happening.
07:39It's on my medical records. It's real.
07:41So shut up.
07:44It wouldn't have been as easy without you. Definitely not.
07:48I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.
07:51It's an absolute pleasure and all credit to you
07:54for keeping going through all of this.
07:57Thanks so much, Rosie. Take care. Thank you. Yeah, and you.
08:00Bye. Bye.
08:04Go on, Max. Go on, Max.
08:08My mum's love and support has been so important
08:11and she's honestly kept me going.
08:13She's my rock. I don't know what I would have done without her.
08:18I think as my confidence has grown, so has hers,
08:21it's like we've kind of beaten it together.
08:26She's never let me feel lonely with my disability.
08:30Every time going to the hospital, you've always been there.
08:33Every time seeing doctors, consultants, specialists,
08:36we've always been there. Yeah.
08:38I'm so proud of her, the way she's come through it
08:41and the way she copes and accepts that she is different.
08:47But sometimes difference's good.
08:50My hopes and goals and ambitions for the future
08:53is to carry on raising awareness,
08:55not just for my own disability but for other people's.
08:58I think it's so important, like, the amount of horrible comments
09:01I've had of people has been crazy
09:04and I don't want that to happen for anyone else.
09:08I feel like the best way to get through something
09:10isn't to go around it, it's to go through it,
09:13it's to deal with it and to accept that this is happening.
09:16Just keep going, be proud of yourself
09:18and remember that life is really worth living.
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