Vocal Misuse and Overuse

What is vocal misuse?

Vocal misuse is using the voice in a way that causes it to be injured. These behaviors can lead to vocal fold lesions (bumps or calluses on the vocal folds), and in some cases can cause permanent damage to the voice.

Examples of vocal misuse include:

• Yelling, screaming and hollering (including cheerleading)
• Throat clearing and coughing
• Loud talking
• Talking in noisy situations (sporting events, restaurants, bars, parties, social gatherings, industrial settings)
• Whispering
• Singing without warming up the voice or without singing training

What is vocal overuse?

Vocal overuse is using the voice too much, so that it gets overly tired. This can lead to an increased risk of vocal fold injury.

If your voice feels tired or gives out easily, you may be overusing your voice. Examples of vocal overuse include talking and/or singing for too long.

How can these behaviors hurt my voice?

The vocal folds are made up of layers of delicate tissue. When you use your voice to make a sound, the vocal folds vibrate or come together.

If they vibrate in an easy, gentle way the voice works well, but if the vocal folds come together in a hard or forceful way, they can be injured.

It’s like clapping your hands. If you clap them softly, you make a sound and your hands don’t hurt. If you clap your hands together hard, they will start to tingle, and then hurt, and will become red and irritated. If you continue this hard clapping, you might get blisters on your hands.

Yelling, screaming, throat clearing, coughing, and even loud talking can all bring the vocal folds together in a hard and forceful way and can cause vocal fold injury.

Talking a lot can also hurt your vocal folds. Your vocal folds come together about 100-200 times per second when you are talking. That can add up to millions of times per day if you are talking for many hours.

All that contact can cause wear and tear on your vocal cords. If they don’t get a chance to rest and recover, they can become injured over time. Many styles of singing bring the vocal folds together in a forceful way, too.

Athletes and dancers carefully warm up their muscles to avoid injuring themselves, and they get lots of training to learn to use their bodies without injuring themselves. Singing is the “athleticism” of voice use. Warming up your voice before singing and getting training in how to sing well can help you avoid injuring your voice.

How can I avoid misusing or overusing my voice?

• Use a noise maker or gesture to gain someone’s attention instead of yelling or screaming.
• Walk over to the person you want to talk to or have them come to you instead of yelling across the room or from another room.
• Use easy throat clearing.
• Avoid talking in noisy situations. If you are in a noisy situation:
  • Get close to the person to whom you want to speak.
  • Put an earplug in one ear so that you can monitor how loud your voice is.
• Use a microphone if you have to speak in a large room or in front of an audience or class.
• If your job or social setting requires you to use your voice a lot, give yourself “voice breaks” or times when you don’t use your voice for a while to let your voice rest.
• Use a hands-free device or hold the receiver in your hand when you speak on the telephone instead of propping it between your ear and shoulder.
• Avoid speaking in stressful situations or when you are overly tense.
• Avoid whispering.