Is anyone self-conscious of there own voice?

[Global]

Hi There

First of all I would like to say what a great forum this is, Alot of the things ive been reading here have made totaly sense and summed up alot of my problems in terms of shyness and its good to know its just not me

Anyway's as the title says " Is anyone self-conscious of there own voice?" I just cant seem to get over it and my voice sounds very quiet and non confident! Its more noticeable at work as i don't really raise my voice when i need to talk to someone or someone is asking me a question.

I just don't know what the deal is with it and i get all embarrassed and self conscious when i have to raise my voice.

Can anyone help me out!

 

[Argamemnon]

Yep, I'm the same. And even when I do raise my voice I sound extremely nervous!

 

[Hoth]

Every single time I pick up the phone, the caller says "Hello ma'am" and asks me to go get Paul or to speak to my husband. When I insist that's me, they repeat themselves and seem very reluctant to give in. So, I'm left to wonder if someone who saw me speak in person would be laughing at me for the apparent gender disconnect.

 

[Idioteque]

I am quite self conscious about it! I seem to have a lightly different voice depending on who,what,when and where... Plus you can never really know how your voice sounds to someone else, it's annoying. My voice is the worst when public speaking, it goes a bit low and weird! i hate doing that :c

 

[Kanon]

yeah, it really does depend on the place.
overall, my voice is too deep, so outdoors or places where there is sound, i'll have to repeat myself several times if i decide to say something in the first place. :?

 

[chris87]

I don't like hearing my voice. I remember when I was in middle school, we had to tape a presentation and play it to the class. I was so embarrassed, and I couldn't stand listening to it.

 

[PhantomPod]

I am very self-conscious of my voice. The majority of the time I worry that my voice it too deep. I am female and I have had many people call me "sir" over the phone.

Also, I have difficulty projecting my voice. I just always seem to be speaking too softly.

And my voice gets very shaky, very easily.

 

[freestylemonster]

I used to be really consious of my voice. I thought it sounded kinda wierd compared to "normal" voices. But I kinda grew out of caring. Nobody I talk to ever seems to react to my voice at all unless I'm nervous because then my voice goes all high and quiet so I have to repeat myself.

Word of advise: Speak from the diaphragm instead of your throat. It will make your voice louder and clearer. (I learned that when I took grade 10 drama, which I almost failed because I was too shy)

 

[Ubersonic]

After meeting my friends mom. He told me she said I have a "Gaybee voice".

It's a hard thing to accept

 

[joeljjison]

People have discussed it on here from time to time and identified the problem. It is because you panic and end up speaking from your throat rather than from your stomach. When you are relaxed you are authoritative and this makes you throw your voice from your stomach which emphasises the strength of your voice and oozes confidence.

One thing that works is taking a deep breath and tricking yourself in to feeling confident (just pretend you are powerful and take a risk!!) . If you can do this, you will notice that when you speak, you can easily capture the attention of people arround you. Your voice will demand attention. You have to shake off the whole shy persona and believe in your self worth. When you are in that state of mind you can command people and they will show you respect.

Yes. I find that my voice sounds silly, and I'm quite sensitive towards imitations. And whenever i'm nervous, which is whenever i have a conversation without prior preperation (Phone calls, introductions, other people starting the conversation) my voice cracks and comes out through the throat like you said.. I usually talk to myself in practice if im going to make a phone call to someone who might make me nervous , because if im worried its likely to crack...

the idea of pretending to be powerful does work, but is extremely difficult. the way i see it, i have to become completely oblivious to the bigger picture, and exist in that moment, complete with optimism, and thats really hard...

still, inspite of massive self confidence problems, i have worked as a charity worker, and in retail promotion... getting by on confidence that i have convinced interviews i have... (on the other hand, i use a false name on these jobs, and convince myself that i am Tom, not Joel... and tom has completely different childhood memories (this is actually scarily effective... i've asked people out as tom, and i'd never do that normally)... the stress caused by my weird intentional imitation of MPD causes me to quit these jobs very quickly, and get very emotional as soon as i become me again...

 

[Psychedelicious]

I don't like my voice. I don't like the tone, or the shakiness of it. It's also bad, because apparantly no one can undertstand what I say when I speak!

 

[Deus_Ex_Lemur]

Ahh voice issues. I despise my voice. Besides just hating the sound of it - which is a bad start - I do much of what has been mentioned here. I will mumble words out of my mouth, speak from the throat, sound monotone and flat and my voice carries like a ghost. In restaurants if I order a burger or hashbrowns a waitress or waiter will ask if I want Ketchup or hot sauce, I say "oh no thank you" they bring it anyways clearly either hear the 'thank you' or just lips moving.

I say certain words strangely like the "ole" or "L's" I say ode when trying to say old. Just naturally or maybe nervously but I have become hyper aware I get flustered and visibly angry when I say things weirdly. I also stumble around my mind goes blank a lot and yeah look and SOUND so silly. I can't carry a conversation normally I get critical of my own voice OR just all the above interferes. Anywho...

 

[daydream]

I'm always surprised by my voice because it's different when I talk to different people. I think too much about my tone when I talk and I constantly try to adjust my voice in conversation. I think it's unnatural to do this.

 

[ricksljf5]

God yes I hate my voice. The fact that I can feel it vibrating on my throat makes me think how low my voice is. And then there are times when I think that my voice sounds nasally or something.

 

[littl3misstrange]

I can't stand listening to my voice. I literally feel like vomiting whenever I hear it on a recording or something.

I don't understand why everyone says I have such a "beautiful" or "nice" voice. Whenever I hear my voice, I actually feel sorry that people have to listen to it!

 

[Ashiene]

one of the few things im proud of is my voice. ive received compliments that i sound very...'youthful' or 'cute' and i think that gives me confidence...

 

[raylite]

Yeah my voice is pretty much the cause of my social phobia. I came to US when I was 14 and my social phobia started developing after about 1-2 years....it all started with me concentrating on my voice too much and the way I pronounce English words. I thought people would make fun of me if I miss pronounced some of the words and I remember being really anxious when I was called on in class. Nobody ever made fun of the way I speak but my self esteem and social anxiety just snowballed from there...

 

[Triselle]

I think my voice is one of my weaknessess in my body because I remember when I was at school and I knew a answer to a question my teacher was asking, I would love to answer it but I was always so scared to speak because my voice was so down low that even though I'd talk really loud my voice would seem very LOW.

The problem was that I'd get low particapation marks on my report card, as I got older I didn't care about my voice anymore because I also didn't care that my voice was very low because thats the normal sound of my voice and I can't change anything about that. So, for people who are very insecure of thier voice don't worry because something like if you think that your voice is very different from other people think again, we talk everyday right so, we should not be ashamed of letting others hear our voice.

 

[bitingthepea]

Same here !
and working in a shop aswel doesnt help having to explain things to the customers because i constantly think how is my voice sounding and then that causes me to jumble upwords!

 

[M1tCh]

Yes.