“Speakaholics Anonymous”… What Do We Mean By That?

For many years, we have been attending to various people with speech problems, possessing voice disorders like:

- Muscle Tension Dysphonia
- Spasmodic Dysphonia
- Polyps on the vocal cords
- Nodules on the vocal cords
- Cysts and lesions on the vocal cords
- Acid reflux & simply… strained vocal cords

My answer would be to go ahead and only ahead and beat all the bad habits; and once it’s done, keep practicing (ongoing) the new adapted habits - instruction, diet, nutrition, newly adapted posture, physical fitness in general, etc.

All of the above voice issues would cause the sufferer (the least to say) a hoarse and raspy voice, unclear enunciation and pronunciation and even partial voice loss…

So with all of the above, they come to us for non-surgical voice repair coupled with natural herbal treatment.

Nevertheless, it is a vigorous, very intense and detailed process with, unfortunately, some setbacks…

I have my own definition for the latter. I call it a “Vocal Swamp”.

“Speakaholics Anonymous”… What Do We Mean By That?
The person who would get “sucked into the swamp” may think that with their very last effort and attempt, they will come out of it; but that “swamp” may play a trick on them and suck them right back in again… and very quickly.

Similarly, when the sufferer thinks that they had finally beaten their very nasty voice problem, they may begin to experience (sometimes numerous) setbacks.

It, understandably, can be a very disappointing and frustrating endeavour. But what choice do they have? Should they give up now after all of their effort and investment of their time, energy and yes, money as well, or should they persevere and continue to “push forward”?

Of course, like nature suggests (in the animal kingdom); the strong will survive and become stronger, while the weak will die off. So my client and I continue our journey and, nevertheless, are succeeding in our voice repair process. And then, just before the end, there is a next setback…

My client, while beginning to feel better (while gradually acquiring their normal voice back), starts to deviate from their suggested-to-them diet and supplements. But, more importantly…, THEY COULD NOT STOP TALKING!

Many times, I give examples to my clients of those athletes who got injured and ended up in rehab. However, when they are discharged from the rehab, they usually don’t begin to run marathons right away…

They continue doing, suggested by the doctors, special exercises; learning first how to walk slowly (often with the walker or crutches), then without, and then they (very gradually) introduce their regular routines back into their lives. My clients, however, immediately acquire what I call “Verbal Diarrhea”. I often joke that even a “Russian Tank” would not be able to stop them from talking. LOL.

However, in reality. the above statement is not really funny.

What happens next is that they lose a very valuable message which was “instilled” in them during numerous hours of instruction; but because it was not really “confirmed” just yet, it disappeared rather quickly; and now they will have to go through the whole restoration of the message itself and, of course, their voice…

Sometimes the latter could be quite a growling process.

I could compare it with an alcoholic who attended A.A for months, kept sober for a bit and then (just for the holidays) had a “little drink”…

Everybody knows that when you are trying to get rid of any addictions (and the wrong use of voice is no different then any other addiction).

The example of similar addictions would be something along the lines of: weight gain/loss, body building, gambling, smoking, drinking and, of course, many other ones of the same kind.

With that said, when the voice problem sufferer “strays away” (just a little) from their healthy routines, no doubt, they will be back to their bad habits in no time… unfortunately.

Is it hard to stay on tack - you, my reader, may ask? Very hard indeed! But what choice do we have?

Attention all voice problem sufferers!
Remember that now it is the holiday time, and thus the hardest time to stay on track on every level.

But with this in mind, please love yourself and don’t sabotage your newly-adapted way of speaking…and living for that matter…!