PHOENIX – “Who would do this for attention? I don’t know.”
Michelle Myers, a former Texas beauty queen who’s never left the USA, sounds like she’s from jolly old England.
“Everyone only sees Mary Poppins or hears Mary Poppins.”
Her lack of a Texas’ twang makes people question whether or not she’s faking. For the past couple of years, Myers has gone to sleep with blinding headaches, waking up with different accents – Irish, Australian, and British.
“They send in the psychiatrist at hospital and make sure you’re not a loon.”
She’s not crazy, she just suffers from a rare condition.
Dr. Toby Yaltho, a neurologist with Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, says, “Foreign Accent Syndrome. There’s been about a 100 cases reported in the last 100 years and it’s something that’s pretty unique and rare.”
The rare condition usually accompanies a stroke, neurological damage, or underlying health issue.
In 2016, Lisa Alamia, a Rosenberg woman started sounding British after waking up from jaw surgery. Alamia says, “I don’t feel like a different person at all. I feel like myself, it’s just it comes out differently. I try to tell people, I’m still me.”
Myers spends time with her seven kids wondering when the sound of her voice will ever change.
