'I woke up from nap slurring words – five minutes later I had totally different accent'
A woman who woke up from a nap slurring her words before speaking with an entirely different accent admits she was “terrified” at first but now feels like it's the “real” her. Verity Went decided to go for a nap in a bid to sleep off a migraine.But after waking up, Verity was left baffled when she realised her voice had completely changed. The 28-year-old from Penkridge in Staffordshire now speaks with a thick Geordie accent.She even finds herself dreaming and sleep talking in her new voice. She recently decided to take a trip to Newcastle to put the accent to the ultimate test - and found locals didn’t even bat an eyelid.Verity has now been diagnosed with a rare condition called foreign accent syndrome. Speaking to What’s The Jam, she said: “No one could tell the difference between me and a real Geordie – it was surreal.“My accent hasn’t changed at all since the incident. But now that some time has passed, I love my voice. It’s become who I am.“My friends and family are so used to it now, and everyone says they believe this is the real me, and that I suit it more than my original accent.”Verity’s shock change came about on October 4, 2023. At the time she had been suffering from a migraine, a symptom of functional neurological disorder (FND), which she had been diagnosed with a year prior.FND is the name given for ‘medically unexplained’ symptoms in the body which appear to be caused by problems in the nervous system, but which are not caused by a physical neurological disease or disorder.Verity said of that day: “After a couple of hours I woke up and my speech was slurred, which I’m occasionally used to, but after five minutes it came back – and was Geordie.“I was terrified. I went to the doctors straight away and since they already knew about my FND, they kind of knew it was something to do with that rather than a stroke.“The doctor was so shocked and when I asked what to do, she said she’s heard about it before but never seen it, and to go to the hospital.“Even though I like it now and I’m used to it, at first I was so upset as I just felt I had completely lost myself and didn’t know who I was anymore.”While she admits it was hard to accept her new voice, as time has gone on, Verity has come to wholeheartedly accept herself – and even notices that her inner monologue and dreams have the same accent as her now. She said: “I don’t want my voice to change back now.“The change itself is so stressful and it took so long to find who I am – I don’t want to go through that again. There’s no knowing if it will change or not, so I just have to stay open-minded and hope that it doesn’t.“But I do believe it’s permanent because of the fact it’s changed my inner monologue as well, and in my dreams it’s changed. I also sleep talk and my boyfriend says it’s also in my new accent, so I can’t see it changing.”Verity is currently working with an occupational therapist specialising in FND to try and piece together what is happening with her body, though the seizures she once experienced have become a thing of the past.
