Last post Sun, Apr 27 2008 12:33 PM by carrollmoore5. 5 replies.
Hey all-
I am thinking today that me having impaired speech is ruining my career and hindering my social life. It's soo hard for me to have a normal phone convo with even my fam; if people don't know me on the phone they think I am retarded. Which is awkward and humiliating-even though I try not to feel it-I still do.. In person-little better but still-last nite I was in the car with my friend and she only understood half of what I said-I am a chick, I need to be able to talk about whatever I am going thru with my girlfriends-it's a natural part of being female and 28. Some people have more difficulty then others-it doesn't come easily to my dad. Sometimes I get pissed, like you're my dad not some sleazy HS teacher, why can't u understand me w/o struggling? But then I feel bad, it's not his fault, I've always known he loves me. Last year my aunt who I haven't seen in like 5 yrs due to a divorce had trouble understanding me cause she wasn't used to me any more. It was just so...I really wanted to talk to her cause I've missed her.
I know it's way holding me back career wise, it's making almost impossible to get what I want, a good income. I have a BS in Business Admin from the University of Arizona. I graduated five years ago and despite my best efforts have not been able to find a job. I want desperately to obtain the American dream by working my way up in cooperate America.
Has anyone re-entered speech therapy as adults? Have any of you had any success? I haven't had traditional speech therapy since I left middle school. Maybe I should try to go back for the sake of my career.
Maybe I should goto China for stem cells-Has anybody looked into that? I would love y to know where to start researching it. Even if it did show promise it would take probably a couple years for me to get the money to go.
Anybody tried acupuncture????
I know in life no matter who we are we have two choices, either give in or keep trying to make life better. I want to chose the latter-I am just having trouble knowing what to do to keep fighting at this point.
Thanks!!
BMWgirl:Has anyone re-entered speech therapy as adults? Have any of you had any success? I haven't had traditional speech therapy since I left middle school. Maybe I should try to go back for the sake of my career. Maybe I should goto China for stem cells-Has anybody looked into that?
Maybe I should goto China for stem cells-Has anybody looked into that?
I don't have CP, I have other medical issues that lead to speech/language/cognitive issues so I did end up working with a speech and language pathologist for almost 5 years in my 20's.
I did find it helpful- VERY much so. I stopped a couple years ago though. But a lot of people are complaining again about "having trouble understanding me." I've thought about going back (I need to for other issues they deal with as well related to swallowing) but I don't know if it's something that I'll constantly NEED to "keep going back" for? (one of my conditions is progressive which may be why I'm suddenly getting complaints from people after doing well for several years).
I've looked into Stem Cells too. :)
I don't have that kind of money though. Hopefully we will see it in our lifetime here.
I hope that helps.
Hi BMW,
I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough time with things. I'm fully deaf and I do not use a regular telephone, I use a TTY Line though and I know there are many people who use then that aren't fully deaf. You type and have the phone receiver connected to it. Mine prints out the conversations of me and the other party. I would think that if you have a lot of people around you all the time they'd be able to hear you just fine. When I was a kid before I went fully deaf one of our neighbors had a speech problem, and no one could understand him except those around him a lot. You just have to really listen, and pick it up and then it's normal, it's not a problem to understand at all. He would switch words around because he couldn't make certain sounds, like Drink would be Grink and so on, but it was just his way. Congrats on obtaining your BS. Have you tried those job placement centers at all? I do know that there are a lot of people out there who are Speech Pathologist/Speech Therapy. What about your local community? Those several pages at the beginning of every phone book with emergency and resource numbers, maybe there is some place in there that you can call to get assistance. Just because you have a speech problem does not mean your dumb at all. I think you know that, just remind yourself of all that college work and that degree. Many think that about me, even those who also are deaf and sign. I will tell them don't mistake deaf for dumb. You can always write your aunt. I'm sorry your going through all this. Best of Luck to you.
There is a program out there you can download FREE to your PC. You type a word or sentence, and it talks for you. We have all seen those big things people have on wheelchair trays to talk with, I guess they are smaller now, but it's like that. It's right on the computer. I had a lot of fun with it, talked to lots of people I didn't know on my speaker phone! Unfortunatly, my hard drive wiped out, and I lost the program, and I can't find it to download it again, so, if anybody knows where to download it, share with us! It's a cool program! [I guess you could even put it on a lap top and be portable with it! That would be sweet!]
http://www.etriloquist.com/
You'll find a job. It might be a little hard. I have CP and sometimes I have a hard time talking, and I have a job. Hang on, you'll get there. Just give it some time.
