ms interferring with "professional appearance"

[heliotrope]

I'm starting to have slight issues with stumbling in speech (problems pronouncing words that I know how to pronounce/mixing up words). It seems to be stress/fatigue triggered, but I don't realize it's MS related until well after it happens.

I give formal presentations and classes as part of my job and am probably 20-30 years younger than the "average" professional in the field. The speech issues were showing up during last night's presentation. While slowing my speech down significantly helped, it was definitely challenging to maintain my "professional" appearance.

Clients already think I'm too young to do this job. How do I handle this, so that they don't think I'm clueless as well?

[MSW1963]

Professionally I did a lot of public speaking and presentations. The good news is I can still deliver a fairly complete and accurate presentation 15yrs later, in my living room anyway. In the presents of an audience of 100+ probably not.

Anxiety meds seemed to slow my concentration, threw me off my 'game', off my best performance. I also had MS related chronic insomnia when my performance started to suffer, which exacerbated the performance anxiety, loss of concentration, word seeking, etc.

I'd suggest talking with your doc about your sx and how your job performance is affected. Anxiety meds may be a possibility, or you may respond to fatigue treatments or meds to improve cognition. It may be a trial and error process to find the best treatment for you. Also practice your presentation while under the influence of your treatment option. There are studies involving students using stimulants while cramming for finals, but the brain unable to retrieve info when exams were taken without stimulants.

Best of luck and keep us updated.

[Poppy7402]

I am still managing to maintain a part-time job teaching but also struggle with my speech so can share your frustration.

I'm lucky in that I have the same class for a whole semester at a time so am able to make some kind of light hearted comment about my MS in the first lesson and let students know that my speech issues are related to this - not that I'm as thick as I sometimes feel !!