#vocal damage

[queerpossums]

new form of gender euphoria unlocked

after screaming at a variety of different events (fun and serious and everything in between), i’ve damaged my vocal cords enough to comfortably hit a B1. it’s not good at all for my vocal health, especially with a performance of haydns creation coming up. but also gender

b1 on a bass staff:

[pack-the-pack]

[Talk about EDs and substance abuse]

I really miss my voice sometimes. I used to have a beautiful singing voice when I was younger. But I was bulemic from ages 13 to 20, so my throat has received a lot of damage, and I've been sporadically smoking when stressed ever since I was 18 (to be fair I've only ever finished one cigarette pack so idk how much actual damage that did, but I'm sure it was some), I still smoke sometimes, so yea that's not great...

I don't drink tho, but I never really had a vocal coach so I always just sang however I saw fit, so that probably fucked my voice a lot.

Sometimes I just really miss my voice, is all... I wish I could heal it, but I'm not sure it's really possible. I think I damaged it too much.

Does anybody know if there's hope for very damaged voices and how to do it? I mean aside from the obvious one that is: Stop smoking.

[glyndarling]

*laughter*

The irony of having a telephone appointment with my doctor when the issue is my having no voice, is delicious.  (It was my idea.  No trip to the office and no co-pay.)

I don’t know how many of you have heard me talk after September of 2014, but I have trouble speaking.  It always hurts to talk, directly related to volume, but often (and growing more frequent) the best I can manage is a thready whisper-yell.  As it has grown worse, my doctor involved herself.  She is urging me (read: bullying in a firm, but gentle way) to see a specialist.  Today I gave in.  I am to expect an email invitation to set up an appointment later today.  They, at least, are not going to try and get me to talk on the phone. 

Not sure what they expect to do about it, though.  It is physical damage and there is not a lot that can be done for vocal cords, last I looked.  (I got really sick at Dollism NY in 2014 and continued to yell, sing, and drink with abandon at the event.)  I did a load of research when it first happened and everything I found said that if the issue didn’t heal itself in three months you were pretty much fucked.  Ah well, more on that when I know it.

[scriptmedic]

I once read a story (that claimed to be based on a true one but, well, grain of salt) where a character got hit in the throat by a rock and lost their voice permanently, thus becoming mute. Is that kind of thing possible? Could there be any injury/illness to the throat that would only damage the, I guess vocal chords, without screwing up everything else?

COMBINED WITH: 

Anonymous said:

Can someone permanently lose their voice if they have their throat slashed? Would that cause other permanent issues? 

Hey nonny. I’m getting a lot of questions on traumatic muteness, so let’s rap a bit. 

Yes, I would believe a blunt injury to the throat causing vocal cord damage. Here’s why. 

The vocal cords sit in a cage made of cartilage (specifically, the thyroid cartilage). 

That shield-looking  thing in the middle? That’s where the vocal cords hang out. It’s pretty well protected from slashing trauma. 

However, blunt trauma can crush, or at least partially damage, the thyroid cartilage -- and thus alter the shape and length of the cords. It’s not impossible for the vocal cords to be damaged in such a way that they can no longer produce vocalizations, or at least, in the same ways that the character would use them before. 

With slashing it’s a little less likely, but still not at all impossible. 

Slashing the throat usually doesn’t affect the cartilaginous cage at all. Usually when someone gets their “throat” slashed, the affected area is the trachea below the level of the cords, meaning that the vocal cords themselves aren’t affected. 

But what often happens with that is that the trachea gets opened and breath comes out through the new hole rather than going through the mouth. Air will follow the shortest path of least resistance, which can mean “oh look new hole!”. Basically, the character has gotten a stoma from an unlicensed medical professional. 

What’s usually done in that case is that the unlicensed stoma just gets corrected into a full tracheostomy by the trauma team, so that they have someplace to breathe through. (I’m a BIG fan of just shoving an endotracheal tube into these injuries and rolling right along with them.) 

But having a trach in place still makes it hard to speak, because remember, the air still wants to come out of the hole in the front of the neck. So many (not all, but many) trach patients have to hold their finger over their trach, exhale, and then speak on the exhale. It takes more work and  more effort. 

Could a character lose their voice from a slashing injury? Yes, but it’s a lot more difficult. Could they lose it from a blunt injury? Absolutely. Would your audience likely believe either? I’m pretty sure they would. 

Best of luck to the both of you! 

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

(Samantha Keel)

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[catapultbooks]

I realized that while I’d made space for those deeper, more personal stories, I was still, by force of habit, filtering them through that outward voice. This process distorted the truth of the story, and what came out on the page was, strangely, less honest for sounding more like natural speech. To reach that other voice, the one inside, required not just quiet, then, but a shutting of the valve of speech itself.

Catapult | Catapult | Losing My Voice and Finding It | Rachel Klein

[pbpiewrites2018]

I've always kinda hated how high my voice is (and paradoxically hated that it wasn't higher) I don't know if it's internalized misogyny or gender dysphoria, but I've always hated just how it sounds when it goes too high!

I also have a lifelong special interest in voice acting. From about the age of 12 I've been trying and kinda failing at being an impressionist. When I was into Animaniacs, I pushed my voice beyond it's natural range to do Yakko and Wakko impressions and didn't stop even when it hurt. I spent months having the worst sore throat, but it was worth it because I sounded very close to my favorite characters voices! I had looked it up at the time, I knew that it could damage my vocal chords, but since I never took my dreams of being a professional singer or voice actor seriously, I decided that it was fine...

Over the years I've tried to sound like Varian from Tangled The Series, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock, Brandon Flowers, and most recently Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker. I sound nothing like them, but it just feels good to talk in a deeper voice. My throat isn't as sore as it used to be, so either my vocal chords have toughened up some? Or I'm doing it in a healthier way? I don't know. Low levels of pain in my throat are a constant now and I am used to them. I know I'm not going to change these bad habits so I'm not going to bother with trying to heal or go to an ENT to see if there's anything that can make them better again. This means that I likely could never be a professional singer or voice actor despite my dreams of doing both (I want to start a rock band so bad) but it is what it is.

But one good thing that has come out of this is that I no longer hate my voice as much. I've heard it on recordings so many times that I am just used to it now! Sometimes I even listen to recordings of myself over and over again for fun because it's weirdly soothing... I swear whether it's puberty or vocal damage my voice has gotten a little deeper as well!

Ever since realizing I'm nonbinary, I've been considering off and on if I would ever want to go on T as it would get rid of my hatred of my voice all together! I may even be able to do convincing impressions of my favorite characters!! But then there are days when I listen to my voice and I think it's so cute and sweet and I would miss it if it was gone forever... And there are other days still where my dysphoria comes from my voice not being high enough! I want to be able to sing my favorite Disney songs or Demi Lovato songs or Defying Gravity! It's so disappointing that my voice is just too deep for that. Or even that my voice is too deep to do impressions of my favorite girl characters like Rapunzel, Dot Warner, Ahsoka, Padme, etc properly!

I don't know. Very rambly this one. I don't know how to end this lol

[mystii-gur0]

guys is my vocal damage from my screaming panic attacks hot and silly or is it just sad.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

To all vocalists/singers, trans people, people in speech therapy, people in kink, people in abusive relationships, people trying to untrain accents, people with swallowing difficulties:

Vocal cords are ligaments...

(no, you don't get the context in which I made this because it's so widely applicable that y'all don't even deserve the opportunity to judge or not judge)