Migraine

I’m not sure about my new symptom, or where I should classify it. I’ve been diagnosed with migraines and Paroxysmal Non-Kinesigenic Dyskinesia. I’ll see my neuro in June, but until then I’d like to understand what’s going on.

I’ve recently starting having spells where I cannot talk. I can open my mouth, but I can’t form the words. I usually can think of simple words to say, but it’s like the connection between my brain and my mouth has been temporarily disconnected. I can’t say anything in any language.

Sometimes these spells will start in mid-sentence. I’ll be talking, then all of a sudden stutter and then nothing. The only warning I’ll have maybe is a strange feeling but sometimes I’ll have a full-blown aura, where the world looks like a choppy video and sounds and thoughts echo in my head. The spells seem to be set off by neon or fluorescent lights (but one was triggered by my cat’s laser pointer.)

The speech arrest lasts about 2-3 minutes, after which I can get some simple words out. Slowly my regular speech comes back, and as it’s coming back, I’ll be able to speak, but it’s strangely monotone and I have difficulty finding words for a few minutes. Sometimes I’ll stutter on the p’s, b’s and f’s. Then I’m fine speech-wise, although a little out of it mentally.

I don’t get a headache with these spells – I’ve never experienced a headache with my migraines. But my head will feel full and buzzy. I also don’t get any of the numbness I have experienced with my migraines before. These spells come about every other day – I’ll have about three of them, then they’ll stop for a couple weeks then start again.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of speech arrest as part of a migraine?

Please try to get ahold of your doctor before June! If not your neuro, at least talk to your PCP about it.

Also, whenever your migraine symptoms change, you should always notify your physician.

I have heard of difficulty forming words, and cognitive problems, but not this severe. It is usually more about the mental process of forming the words, but not the physical process of getting them out.

Please talk to a physician sooner than later and please keep us posted.

Hi Steph,

From doing a quick search, Paroxysmal Non-Kinesigenic Dyskinesia, PNKD, are spontaneous hperkinetic episodes that may be brought on by alcohol, coffee, stress and fatigue.

Acephalgic Migraine or silent Migraine is a Migraine attack without the headache phase. Any type of Migraine can be silent. Acephalgic or Silent Migraine - The Basics will give you more information.

As always, when we have new or different symptoms, it is a good idea to contact our doctor.

Been there, done that, have the t-shirt ...

First, I echo - TELL YOUR DOCTOR if you haven't already.

I get various versions of aphasia with (and sometimes between) my migraine attacks. It happens enough that at home, my family knows my code for "I have aphasia now", because all of a sudden (it could even be mid-sentence), I go absolutely silent, and I hold up my hand in a "wait" kind of signal, and sit there till the speech comes back. My husband usually asks, "Can't talk?" and I manage to nod, and everyone waits patiently.

It's the freakiest feeling, because as you say, there is thought process, but a total inability to get anything out. I have noticed that sometimes I get a warning that this is going to happen when I start having trouble coming out with nouns. I'll be trying to tell the kids to put the milk in the fridge, and I won't be able to think of "fridge". I usually end up pointing and saying, "That thing!". Again, my kids are used to that sort of thing and will supply words for me.

My husband tells me that sometimes I stare blankly for a moment before the total speechlock happens. I believe him, but I am only aware of the disconnect between my thought and my speech.

I have never had an EEG indicating epilepsy. However, this was an important rule out for my doctor.

I can't emphasize enough how much you should contact your doctor about this. You may be right about it being part of your migraine, but if you're wrong and it's something more serious, you'll want to know. You could even let your GP know if for some reason you can't get into your neuro. I suspect you'd end up with a referral - somebody's going to want to look into this further.

Good luck. You're not alone, though. I have only known one other migraineur who had this particular symptom lasting as long as a few minutes on a regular basis, so I was interested to read about this.

Lynne

Yes, I have something like that in about 1/3 of my migraines recently. It's one of my newest symptoms. I have really bad visual aura, but part of the time I also get the speech difficulties. Either I can't make myself say the right word or I'll say a related word without realizing it until after I hear myself. Once I could only make a sound that was part of the word I was trying to say. Extremely scary!!! I get the head pain in some of my migraines, but not all of them. Tonight I got the visual aura when I got home from work. Then some light head pain, but ibuprofen took care of it. Now, my head is somewhat achey especially if I move.

I`ve noticed this too, on the day after the pain and everything about me is terribly slow. The words just won`t come out, its a real struggle to talk.

I had this too recently at work... which was so not fun. The day started with me being unable to finish a sentence and progressed to completely garbled speach. I would start a word, but for the life of me could not complete it, like my brain forgot how to say it. So sentences often trailed off into a muffled garble. Oddly enough, same thing when I was writing... words just finished with an illegible scrawl as I forgot how to write the letters needed. Not my best day. It was way worse than my usual forget a word, substitue a word, or mess up letters... this was the inablity to speak properly. in my case it led into a killer migraine and I am certain it was an aura thing... but best to get that checked asap.