Discovering an Unexpected Skill After a Seizure
When Michal Sklar experienced a grand mal seizure at 16, she was terrified for her health. But the event led to the discovery of an unexpected skill she humorously refers to as “the most useless superpower.” Sklar vividly recalls the incident, which happened the day before her seventeenth birthday in October 2010, while she was preparing to speak at her high school assembly in New York. She introduced the speaker, sat down, and the next thing she knew, she was in the hospital.
“The seizure was idiopathic, and its cause remains unknown,” said Sklar, now 32. She underwent extensive testing and remained under medical supervision for months, but no explanation was found for the seizure. During her hospital stay, Sklar began processing words backwards. She initially dismissed this ability but soon realized she could reverse everything spoken by her doctors and nurses.
“Initially, this newfound skill really freaked me out. I had just gone through a dramatic medical episode, and now, all of a sudden, my brain was reversing words,” she said.
A language enthusiast, Sklar found herself at an extreme with this ability. Waking up with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” playing backwards in her mind became a regular experience. As an example, “s’ti a evol yrots, ybab tsuj yas sey” is what one might hear.
Researchers note that seizure activity can disrupt language systems, affecting the processing of words. The epilepsy-aphasia spectrum, as described by MedlinePlus Genetics, refers to disorders where seizure activity impacts speech, reading, and writing. Seizures affecting the left temporal lobe might cause difficulty in word retrieval and object naming.
Sklar hesitated to share her new skill initially. She confided in a school friend, who found it cool. Over time, she told her family, who joked it was “strangely on brand” for her. “I hadn’t shared it with the doctors when I first discovered the skill because there were already wires connected to my brain, and the more pressing matter was figuring out why I had a seizure in the first place,” Sklar explained.
When Sklar finally told her neurologist, the reaction was dismissive. “I grabbed some papers from her desk and showed her how quickly I could read in reverse, but she didn’t seem interested,” she said.
Her ability allows her to flip each word in a sentence backwards. For instance, “hi, I’m Michal, and it’s such an honor to be featured in Newsweek” becomes “iH, m’I lahciM, dna s’ti hcus na ronoh ot eb derutaef ni keewsweN.” Sklar named this quirky language “sdrawkcab.” Everyday words are instant for her, though longer ones pose more challenge. The question of whether she can reverse supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is answered with a no.
Her son finds it “the coolest thing,” bragging about it to friends. Sklar and her husband even incorporate sdrawkcab words into their everyday language, like “snoops” for spoons and “pots” for stop.
What Sklar calls “the most useless superpower” offers her family endless fun. She encourages others to embrace their differences instead of feeling embarrassed. Sklar shares her backwards speaking journey on social media (@momentsofmichal on TikTok), where it’s well-received.
“The fact that my brain could adapt in this way and create an entirely new way of processing language continues to amaze me, and honestly, still freaks me out sometimes,” Sklar shared.
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Emma Lee-Sang