An English woman has shared how she woke up with a Welsh accent despite never visiting the country

Zoe Coles, 36, has Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) - a rare condition where people develop speech patterns that are perceived as a foreign accent.

Credit: SWNS

Video transcript

ZOE COLES: Nine months ago today, I woke up speaking with a Welsh accent. Nine months ago today, I lost my identity. I lost part of who I am.

And how have I coped? Not very well. I'm not going to lie. It's been the longest, hardest nine months ever.

I mean, no one knows how long I'm going to have this accent for. It could go. It could stay. It could change. Anything could happen. That's Foreign Accent Syndrome for you.

And yes, I'm all over social media. And yes, I share my journey, and I share my story, and for good reason.

I feel like I want people to know that this is real life. This has happened to me. I have woke up speaking with a Welsh accent, and it's bloody difficult. It's so hard because you do get questioned everywhere you go, or if you bump into someone that's Welsh, oh, where are you from? Oh. It's so difficult.

And it's actually, quite stressful.

I talk for England, and I don't mind speaking about it all. I love to tell people, I woke up speaking with a Welsh accent, and this has happened to me because I have functional neurological disorder. And then people are aware so it does help spread the awareness.

However, I need people to understand, how real this is, and how I've lost my identity. I've lost part of who I am, and I'm just trying to figure out the new me.

And even though it's been nine months, I still haven't adapted because I still miss my old voice. I still miss who I used to be, what I used to do, how I used to go about my life, and it's all different. It's all changed. And I'm still figuring out life, and how to do life now I'm so unable to do so much.

And just like that, the Welsh accent is back. It does just come back on its own. It does just appear randomly the same way the English and the slurred and stuttered speech just appears naturally. It just comes and goes when it pleases.

There is no pattern. There is no-- I've tried to figure out if there's a reason it happens, or I just-- I don't know why-- I don't know why? It's like the English speaking me is slurred and stuttered, and it's like a flare up, and it's part of my FND. And then it's like the Welsh is normal to me now. And that doesn't make sense.

I can't get it to make sense in my head. I can't get-- I can't get over that one minute, I'm English, one minute, I'm Welsh. It is really hard for me because I was English, I woke up Welsh, and now, I'm a bit of both, and it just depends on what kind of day I'm having. It's actually harder than you can imagine.

How do you cope with that? Like, how do you cope with your accent being different and keep coming and going? And then when it's English, it's slurred and stuttered. Like, your voice is who you are. Your voice is your identity, and mine keeps changing. And I have no idea why it keeps changing.

So I'm always asked, how, or why I've woken up with a Welsh accent? And I don't know the answer to give to these people. I was told by a neurologist that the word "why" doesn't matter. The reason why doesn't matter. Why isn't important.

Well, actually, I disagree because I've been asked to accept that I've got Foreign Accent Syndrome and FND, and I'm finding it really difficult to accept because I don't know the reason why I've got it. So it's making it harder to accept without the reason.

And it's not like I can ask Joe Blokes around the corner because he's got it, or Sally up the road because she's got it. It doesn't happen to everyone. It's really rare. Foreign Accent Syndrome is really rare, to me, but to the neurologist, apparently, it's not rare. He sees this all the time.

But I'm struggling here. I'm struggling with why this has happened to me. Why me? There's got to be a reason. And I can't move forward.

My mental health is suffering because I don't know the reason why. And it's easier for you guys to say, why does it matter? Because it matters a lot because my whole life has been turned upside down. I've cried for the last week because I can't do the physical things that I want to do. I can't do the-- I just-- there's so much I can't do that it's breaking me down bit by bit.

And I want to know the reason why I've got this so I can try and fix it. And then, other people can find out why they've got it, and they can fix themselves because we are all suffering, and it really isn't fair.

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