Losing my Voice

[sylar988]

Whenever the professor asks me to speak something out loud when i'm sitting, i lose my voice. I try to speak but words barely come out, it's REALLY embarrasing. I'm in pain here, every class now i dread that he will ask me to say something, because the a** wants EVERYONE participating in the class.


The thing is, if i'm supposed to give a presentation or stand up and speak in front of the whole class, i don't have problems and my voice goes out just fine. What the hell is this? Why is it when i'm sitting and supposed to speak out loud, even if less than half the class is listening (yea those extroverts.. too busy with their own conversations), my voice just DOES NOT GO OUT. It's like when we're speaking something and we're about to cry and our throat knots and we can't speak; it's actually almost exactly like that, yet i do not feel like crying at all at the moment.

 

[Infected_Malignity]

maybe it happens when you have no time to brace yourself for it. what a great way to get desensitized, though! your teacher might be the one thing that lets you escape the madness

there's always a brighter side.

 

[sylar988]

maybe it happens when you have no time to brace yourself for it. what a great way to get desensitized, though! your teacher might be the one thing that lets you escape the madness

there's always a brighter side.

I don't think i desensitize much, i think it only makes matters worse. Because it's a snowball effect, if i have to speak sitting i lose voice, which makes me more afraid to speak sitting and so on. I'm even afraid that this may impai my capability of speaking standing or giving presentations; that would be the end of it.


But yes i've always tried to adapt. Now i'm going to have to adapt quickly and painfully. If i speak sitting but it's my initiative to speak, i can better than if i'm asked to speak. So i should slowly start speaking more, even if it's just to make some useless remarks. But still, i'm dreaded. I don't know how i managed to go through the 2 years i have already gone through in university without problems. Now i see the next 2 years as hell and if things stay the way they are i may need to stop for one semester to pick up the pieces and put them together.

In other words, I HAVE TO MANAGE THIS ASAP. Any tips, other than the technique i already mentioned?

 

[wooaah]

that happens to me too a lot. for some reason sometimes i can't talk loud, my voice just disappears. I find it helps to just force your voice through the knot. Have the aim to speak way too loud. And your voice will come out still a little scratchy, but the perfect volume.

I also sometimes test my voice with meaningless words. If i suddenly have to speak when i am not ready. I just say "ummm" really loudly like i'm thinking even when i have an answer, just to warm my voice up and get used to the volume. And if the "ummm" comes out scratchy, then i take a moment to cough and clear my throat. Then start again with "ya um I think..." to test the voice again.

it also seem to help to speak in a higher tone than usual. Because my voice becomes sharper and easier to hear.

 

[sylar988]

that happens to me too a lot. for some reason sometimes i can't talk loud, my voice just disappears. I find it helps to just force your voice through the knot. Have the aim to speak way too loud. And your voice will come out still a little scratchy, but the perfect volume.

I also sometimes test my voice with meaningless words. If i suddenly have to speak when i am not ready. I just say "ummm" really loudly like i'm thinking even when i have an answer, just to warm my voice up and get used to the volume. And if the "ummm" comes out scratchy, then i take a moment to cough and clear my throat. Then start again with "ya um I think..." to test the voice again.

it also seem to help to speak in a higher tone than usual. Because my voice becomes sharper and easier to hear.

Thanks a lot. This looks like some really good advice. I'm glad someone actually understands me. Because others would give me some lousy advices like visualization and some other "general" techniques but those didn't help sh*t.

I'll definitely try your advices and i'll give a feedback. Right now my mindset is changing; this is curious. I'm actually looking forward for the next situation to test these advices. I really liked them. Simple and effective.

 

[toothpastekisses]

..................

 

[Carstuar]

I practice using my voice by SINGING to myself whenever I'm all alone (at home in my apartment).
Sometimes I also talk to the people I play online games with, on a program called Ventrilo.

This actually helped me a lot with my voice issues, and I'm much more confident about the way I speak now. The "losing my voice" thing now only happens if I'm caught off guard and suddenly have to talk to someone unexpected in public.
However, I still don't know what to say to strangers in most situations

 

[dan_e]

Welcome to my world When people ask me a question, many times I can't seem to speak. I kind of get a lump in my throat. Then the moment passes and they probably think I'm ignoring them. Sorry, no advice from me. I can't get past it myself. Let us know how you make out in the future or if you find anything that works. Good luck!

 

[sylar988]

Today i had my first trial and the word is success.

The "beloved" professor was explaining something and he suddenly said "well and now what do you think (the class) that the government's size should be? [MY NAME]! *slowly pointing at me*, what do you think?


I started feeling my heart pounding, but not much, as usual. I then started speaking and my voice got weaker as it normally does after one or two secs, but then in less than a second i thought "well let's keep it, speak stronger, make the air get out and the voice will come" and i managed to overcome this thing that happens, recovered the voice, and after that i could continue speaking normally.



I guess the problem all came from the fact that i didn't know how to manage this. I thought that after losing the voice things would only get worse but all i needed to do was to keep trying until i recovered. In the next weeks i have 4 (yes damn 4!! business management degree.. too many alpha dogs i guess) presentations to make in different classes, not that presentations really scare me but this voice problem could spread to them; we'll see how it will go.... but the good thing is that all that fear and tension that i had that in a few days (heck, even if the next class with this professor with a week away i still worried) i would go through hell again ended. I'm really happy and i feel that feeling of freedom again. It's great!