There is never a good time to lose your voice. It is easy to underestimate how important the ability to speak is.
We may think that we don’t talk that much and that we will easily be able to communicate our needs and desires to people without any voice. But when our voice does finally go, it can be a real shock.
The average human literally speaks hundreds of thousands of words per day, sometimes millions. So when you lose this ability, it can drastically change your ability to get through your day-to-day life.
Whether you lost your voice from talking, singing, or even theatre – if you are unfortunate enough to lose your voice, there are many different things you can do to cope with that loss, but the main thing to do is to make a plan for getting your voice back.
In this article, we discuss some strategies you can consider to get by whilst without a voice, as well as some things you can do to improve the chances of your voice returning.
In many cases, the cause for the loss of your voice is due to some kind of underlying sickness or exhaustion. If you have lost your voice, it could be a sign that you need to take a break.
Though there is a time and a place to come up with strategies for getting your voice back, the fact that you have lost your voice in the first place could mean that you need to stop for a minute.
So if you do lose your voice, take the opportunity to take a break.
Even if it’s just for a couple of days, use the signal of your loss of voice as evidence to justify giving yourself a few days to do nothing.
Whether you watch TV or read a book, or just sit outside and enjoy nature take the opportunity to take a break.
If you have responsibilities to care for other people, whether that be children or parents or others, then you may not be able to stop completely.
If that is the case, then take the opportunity to do as little as you possibly can whilst keeping everyone else alive and meeting your other obligations to the extent that you need to.
The first, and probably the most traditional way of communicating when you have lost your voice is to simply write your words down.
There are different techniques and tools you can adopt to write with.
If you have a small whiteboard and whiteboard marker on hand, that can be a very good option.
In this way, you can have a rapid conversation with people and write sentences and then rub them out and write further sentences.
This is very efficient with time and with space and will minimize the waste of other materials.
If you don’t have access to a small whiteboard and whiteboard marker, you could consider using some Post-it notes or a pad and a pen or pencil. Post-it notes might be a bit too small on average, but with a pad and a pen or pencil, you could easily write down everything that you need to communicate.
The only downside to this approach is that you will need to essentially chuck the paper away.
Given most of us have a smartphone or a tablet these days, then you could also use technology to quickly type messages to communicate anything you need to say.
If your support people are in the same house as you, then you don’t need to send messages or send emails, but you can just type little notes using a notes app and then show that to the people you are with to communicate what you were trying to say.
After you’ve had a few days to rest and give your body a much-needed break, you will need to start thinking about how to help your voice recover so you can use it again.
Getting some rest on its own may have already had a restorative effect on your voice.
Many aspects of your voice will improve on their own just by being given the opportunity to rest.
But certain types of damage to your vocal cords will need targeted rehabilitation.
If your voice didn’t improve on its own, then you will need to consider recovering your voice with the guidance of a voice coach.
Vocal coaches typically provide singing lessons, but they also provide many other services, such as voice therapy.
They are experts on the vocal cords and all the muscles involved in producing vocal sounds so they will be able to diagnose aspects of your speaking, which are not working correctly and provide guidance and instruction on how to improve.
Losing your voice can come at the most unexpected and unwelcome time.
But when it does happen, you need to acknowledge what this is likely telling you in that you need to take a break. If a break on its own doesn’t improve your voice, then you need to seek out a vocal coach for structured guidance on restoring your voice to its natural state.
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