Aphasia

Specific disabilities and conditions
1

Hi All

I’m reaching out to the community to get your thoughts on Aphasia. I think I may have it or a mild form of it, I’ve not gone to my doctor about it as I’m worried that due to my age (26) they will dismiss it and laugh me out the room.

For the last 3 - 4 years, I have been very forgetful when it comes to remembering names of places, people, items and some day to day words. I often start speaking about a subject and forget the word and have to get the other person to complete the sentence for me. It’s embarrassing and frustrating and I often feel it can misrepresent my intelligence.

I’ve noticed in the last year that I’ve began to merge words together in a sentence and this often comes out illegible and so I have to repeat myself, I can’t control when this happens and I am beginning to worry as my job requires me to be able to communicate effectively with the public.

I often find myself having to plan in my head what I’m trying to say otherwise my sentence can become quite confused. It makes it difficult in striking up conversations on the spot.

I know this can occur from a number of sources but I’ve not hurt my head recently, suffered stroke or brain damage. About 5 years ago I had fallen while I’ve skating and bashed my head off the ice, and when I was a teenager had fallen off a skateboard and banged my head off concrete pathing, again these may not be significant.

I also suffer from type 1 diabetes and managing that can be a challenge in itself.

I’m not sure if I have Aphasia, I’ve read some sites on the signs and types but I don’t want to suddenly assume it is Aphasia. A bit like when you have a sore leg and google it and google returns with results for DVT or blood clots (example).

It would be great hearing from the community and from those who know, have or deal with people who have Aphasia.

Much Appreciated

Andrew

2

Stop trying to self diagnose and consult your doctor. My son has aphasia, not the symptoms you describe.

3

Your could also make an appointment with a speech therapist. However, your g.p. would refer you if they thought it was needed.

If you are worried and can’t get to a G.P. and can afford to pay. IF necessary the therapist would also refer you back to your G.P.

4

How have you got in since your post? My daughter is a type 1 diabetic. Have you noticed wether this symptom is occurring when your sugars are in range? Or out of range? As this can have strange affects on the brain particularly if sugars are low or high. My daughter doesn’t exhibit many symptoms but she goes pale and slurs her words when hypo and is sometimes like a small drunk person with less inhibition with her words when hyper. X

5

Hi Andrew

It’s been a while since you posted but I thought I’d tell you about my nominal aphasia.

In December 2002 I suffered 2 tonic clonic seizures and one of the first problems I began to experience was not being able to recall names and simple words. I knew who/what I was thinking of but I just couldn’t express these thoughts in spoken words. As I went on to develop uncontrolled epilepsy I believe the aphasia became worse, along with other memory problems.

You’d know if you’d suffered tonic clonic seizures and I think you’d be aware of complex partial activity too, but do you think you might be having extremely mild partial seizures? Mild ‘absences’? I’m no doctor and therefore I definitely think it’d be worth speaking with your GP.

Good luck with things, David