article, op-ed, or blog post about burnout causing inability to speak
March 26, 2024 1:00 PM   Subscribe

Sometime between 3 months and 2 years ago, I read a first person account from a woman -- I think a medical professional, maybe a surgeon -- describing periodic burnout episodes which caused her to be unable to speak, or nearly unable to speak, and to be otherwise unable to function as a "normal" person. I'd love a link to that account, or possibly others as specific and compelling.

I've been looking for a whole piece by that person, but it could have been a description of her life as part of a larger article.

I looked at a bunch of stuff by and about Dr. Mary Doherty, but couldn't find it, and I'm not sure it's from her.

I am interested in vivid, compelling, objective, concise or summarizable accounts of this phenomenon (and related debility) in general. Of course I can find a lot of people writing about phenomena like this, and I appreciate that a lot.

I'm interested in this particular text more than what I've found today. Two reasons:

--> This story features person who's otherwise accomplished (hence credible to people who would otherwise be dismissive), and

--> The symptoms were described in a way that makes them hard to dismiss or minimize.
posted by amtho to Grab Bag (16 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Was it Samara Bay, who recently authored Permission to Speak? She is a vocal coach who lost her voice in college and had to relearn how to speak in her natural register. She's been doing a lot of publicity lately (like on the Farnoosh Torabi podcast).
posted by mostly vowels at 1:12 PM on March 26, 2024 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks - this was more about the brain not working, or physical/mental exhaustion, rather than physiological vocal wear.

I think recovery time was variable and there were multiple incidents. It was regular, predictable, and the person anticipated it happening again because of the stresses of her normal life.
posted by amtho at 1:20 PM on March 26, 2024


I think I've seen a number of these anecdotes specifically attributed to "autistic burnout" - burnout that comes from the burden of needing to mask in everyday situations until that becomes too much to bear. NYT has some anecdotes and coverage here, but that search term may be generally useful.
posted by A Blue Moon at 1:41 PM on March 26, 2024 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I'm good on search terms and have seen those, thanks -- I read that article yesterday. Interesting, but I need specific stories now. Most of what I've found by searching is going to be primarily meaningful to people who have had the same experience.

Communicating the full force and seriousness of any experience to someone who hasn't lived it is extremely challenging, so I'm hoping someone here has marked or remembered an article like what I describe.
posted by amtho at 2:06 PM on March 26, 2024


Was it this article by Henn Kim? It's quite brief but looks like it is an extract from her memoir, which might be of interest.
posted by dudekiller at 2:06 PM on March 26, 2024


I thought to myself that that sounds like something from a Radiolab podcast. This episode's blurb mentions a singer who lost her voice. Is this it?

They also talked with Dr. Oliver Sacks a lot, but not on this episode; this sounds like something he would have studied, too. He's written many books.
posted by hydra77 at 2:07 PM on March 26, 2024


Response by poster: The number of reasons to not speak is greater than I appreciated -- truly interesting.

Henn Kim chose not to speak, and shyness seems to be a big factor. This is an intriguing perspective (thanks for the article), but not the same as the cognitive overload I'm thinking about.

The Linda Thompson story on Radiolab is also arresting, but it was a one-time phenomenon caused by a specific emotional shock, rather than a regular occurrence of cognitive overload.

Great stories though. Still looking for the repeated, predictable cognitive overload story.

(Sorry to threadsit - it seems I am not good at explaining this, sorry.)
posted by amtho at 2:13 PM on March 26, 2024


Just as a long shot, was it something in this recent This American Life episode called The Words to Say It? "What it means to have words—and to lose them."
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:14 PM on March 26, 2024 [3 favorites]


(Sorry to threadsit - it seems I am not good at explaining this, sorry.)

You explained it perfectly -- people are just not reading carefully enough.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 3:07 PM on March 26, 2024 [9 favorites]


repeated, predictable cognitive overload story

Do you remember if it was purely about cognitive overload (which sounds like accounts of autism might be relevant) or if something like CFS or long covid might have been a part of it, maybe with general brain fog in addition to aphasia? Those are conditions where stress or exertion can predictably cause symptoms.
posted by trig at 3:51 PM on March 26, 2024


Oh, gosh, I feel like I just saw this... She was a professional who was asked to speak at a conference (maybe a memorial service for her father?) and she got onstage and had a shaking fit. Her mother was in the audience and became quite alarmed?

Ah: The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves

"While speaking at a memorial event for her father in 2006, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Despite her flapping arms and shaking legs, she continued to speak clearly and was able to finish her speech. It was as if she had suddenly become two people: a calm orator and a shuddering wreck. Then the seizures happened again and again."
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:09 PM on March 26, 2024


I swear I saw this, or something else well-described by it, on an autism blog. Searching for that, this is not the writing you're looking for, but a precise description of the experience of being nonspeaking.
posted by away for regrooving at 4:57 PM on March 26, 2024 [4 favorites]


This is what I thought of when I read your question. This story came up on the Blue a few years ago when I was fruitlessly searching for late adulthood emergence of "migraines" that seemed to be related to burnout from work/school. The original poster suffered from extreme cognitive decline after an extended period of stress and hypothesized that it was due to complete glucose depletion in the brain. They deleted the thread and left Twitter, but I'm linking to what I think is a relevant comment. Migrated account here.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 11:56 AM on March 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Is it this? The author is an anaesthetist.

As I write this, I have no access to fluent speech. I am autistic: an able, high-achieving, highly accomplished autistic woman. A medical professional who teaches peers about autism. Yet if you saw me in a difficult moment — such as at Gatwick Airport last night — or indeed during an INSAR [International Society for Autism Research] planning meeting today, you might not recognize me. An intensive day of interaction and teaching at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ National Autism Training Programme for Psychiatrists yesterday, followed by a difficult journey home and a trainee support workshop this morning, which I didn’t feel able to cancel, has left me completely spent and, as we say in the autistic community, totally “out of spoons.” Luckily, our neurodivergent family functions perfectly well without the need for spoken words, and my autistic teenager can empathically say, “It’s OK, Mum. Don’t try to talk.” At other times, I’m the one saying the same to him.

Darkness, a complete lack of interaction (even online), favored comfort items, intense stimming and time is what it will take for me to regulate to the point at which I can once again communicate using spoken words.


https://www.spectrumnews.org/opinion/viewpoint/weaponized-heterogeneity-only-harms-the-most-vulnerable-autistic-people/

I originally found it on the blue but was able to re-find it now because I had emailed it to someone.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:55 PM on March 27, 2024 [8 favorites]


If only I had a penguin... that's the one I was remembering reading!
posted by away for regrooving at 9:40 PM on March 27, 2024


Response by poster: I thought it might be Mary Doherty, but even looking for her name I couldn't find it. Thank you!
posted by amtho at 11:47 PM on March 28, 2024


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