HELP! Can't turn off Speech Recognition, Processor Never Stops

I foolishly thought it would be a great idea to turn of the "Dictation" feature on my Mac to get an audio file I have on my phone transcribed...and now I can't disable it no matter what I do. I have repeatedly tried to turn off the "apple speech recognition" in my Activities Monitor - it pops right back up (including when I use Force Quit), I have turned off the dictation in the systems Preferences (under keyboard), I have turned off Ask Siri, I have tried clicking "Sleep" on the little microphone pop-up on my workspace... and when I talk it still registers. I have restarted my laptop twice, and have even turned it off and walked away for an hour and when I return - Boom, it's all on. Please, I have tried everything and the processor continues to churn away - like torture as I tried to work.