No exercises today — this is a lifestyle episode.

And today’s topic is one of the biggest enemies of Spasmodic Dysphonia:

The phone.

If you have a voice disorder, the phrase “give me a call” can feel like a threat.

In this episode, I tell a real-life story about dealing with eBay customer service, a missing Bar Bingo championship belt case, a mystery shipping company, forced callbacks, spam-call settings, and the kind of stressful phone conversation that can make a Spasmodic Dysphonia voice go completely sideways.

The bigger point is how phone calls affect people with Spasmodic Dysphonia, dysphonia, speech issues, or voice disorders — especially when we are already frustrated, emotional, misunderstood, or forced into a situation where texting or email would have worked better.

Sometimes the best sentence is:

“I have a speech impediment and a hearing impediment, so phone calls do not work well for me. Can we please handle this by text or email?”

This is part of the lifestyle side of Spasmodic Dysphonia.

Because honestly?

This could have been a text.