Freezing

So glad to read about freezing, here. For several years I thought I was losing my memory of how to drink when I neared the end of my cup of coffee or any liquid! I drink fine and then the last fourth, I have to drink it one swallow at a time! If I understand this, correctly, it is part of this freezing issue problem! Stuttering too?
My present question is for those of you who have this problem: Is it worse- I mean REALLY worse around winter solstice? At this time of the year are the walls closing in on you? Do things like coffee tables etc. cause you to freeze? I actually got “stuck” for 5 minutes! Nothing my husband could do or that I could do would unstick me! Eventually I was able to slowly slide my feet to a chair but one leg had to be moved for me to sit down. My husband lifted it up and into position so I could sit!

Hi. It seems to me that my symptoms generally are worse in the winter. The short days, the cold and the wet, all contribute to making it more difficult to exercise, but it seems to be something more than that.

My speech began to deteriorate in 2002 about 5 months after I took antidepressants for a couple of weeks.

Early 2003 speech got much worse after I was given a neuroleptic for a few months ‘severely impaired’

By 2007 I was becoming concerned about Parkinson’s.

8/5/09 I hate having to repeat my self as it usually comes out worse. If I have to do something as seemingly simple as spelling out my name on the phone or my card number when ordering a taxi I can feel the muscles tightening up.

The kids are used to me not really replying to questions as the muscles seize up.

10/11/09 Sometimes I can’t get my words out at all … my speech gets kind of stuck.

26/5/10 I noted speech hesitation/stutter, difficulty initiating speech sometimes esp. phone

2/7/10 a friend took me up to the doctor – my speech is sometimes so bad I worry about being able to communicate.

I’ve been reading about this ‘freezing’ stuff going on in Parkinson’s …Think the freezing is what is happening to my speech too.

5/5/11 Bit upset when my speech is bad. getting the stutter and Palilalia I think find myself getting stuck on first consonant and just repeating it to myself & when I call the kids for help not getting volume & seems to get quieter when I try again.

6/12/11 Community SLT: You presented with reduced speech intelligibility characterised by variable control of your voice, reduced coordination of breath support for speech and reduced rate of movement of tongue. Your speech is further impacted by presence of a stammer, including speech blocks and repetition of sounds

7/8/14 Hospital SLT: Voicing was difficult to control and she became aphonic at times. She had no ability to control pitch or volume …often unintelligible. At times she was unable to initiate any speech and had to resort to gestures such as pointing and also writing…

28/5/15 Community SLT: Markedly imprecise articulation. Unable to control voicing and pitch and volume of voice. Occasionally aphonic. Frequent repetitions

Communication in Parkinson’s disease Catherine Jones & Julia Johnson EPNN Journal Summer 2006

Described as ‘hypokinetic dysarthria’ by Darley in 1969, the most commonly reported perceptual features involving motor speech in Parkinson’s disease are: Reduced loudness, Monoloudness and monopitch, Breathiness and harshness, Reduced prosody, Imprecise articulation.

Rate of speech can be either too rapid, sometimes with accompanying repetition of syllables or words (referred to as palilalia) or can be very slow. Sometimes, just as difficulty in initiating walking can occur, there may be difficulty initiating speech or people with Parkinson’s may experience ‘freezes’ when there may be inappropriate silences in the middle of a sentence.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ATARAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=duffy+hypokinetic+dysarthria+chapter+7&source=bl&ots=LxeD-z7jKl&sig=ACfU3U2oOw83FdLktUtkUkqtY-K2mQYRpA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT9KSTjs3mAhWGh1wKHax4BlkQ6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=duffy%20hypokinetic%20dysarthria%20chapter%207&f=false

Chapter 7 Duffy Hypokinetic dysarthria (in Motor Speech Disorders - E-Book: Substrates, Differential Diagnosis, and Management J.R. Duffy 1995, 2005, 2013 Elsevier)

p.166 Slowness of movement and a feeling of stiffness or tightness characterize rigidity.

Bradykinesia, prominent in basal ganglia disorders, reflects problems with movement planning, initiation and execution.

p.167 In spite of a desire to move, intermittent “freezing” or immobility (akinesia) may occur.

PD is almost certainly the most frequent cause of hypokinetic dysarthria and in the absence of other influences, hypokinetic dysarthria is the dysarthria of PD

p.170 Some [patients] use the word stutter to describe sound, syllable, and word repetitions or difficulty initiating speech.

Freezing Phenomenon, the Fifth Cardinal Sign of Parkinsonism N.Giladi, S.Fahn ( Progress in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases ed. Fisher et al Plenum Press 1998)

Giladi et aL (1992) have suggested the general term “motor blocks”….However, the term “freezing” is so strongly ingrained in the medical and movement disorders specialist community that we came back to the term “freezing: and strongly suggest that this unambiguous term be used by all researchers in the field

Thanks for answering. Amazingly the days here in US are already noticeably longer! Never has been - it was about the 2nd week of January, before I could tell a difference. Even others are commenting! Not sure what is going on!

Wow! A whole medical lesson! Thank you. I now feel blessed with what my symptoms are, that could be so much worse!