Throwaway account as I deleted my main Reddit account a while ago.
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I've had this issue as long as I've remembered.
I'm 22M. All of my family members have completely normal voices. My brother, for example - 29M - completely normal, deep, resonant male voice.
For whatever reason, I constantly sound like I'm in pain. I've posted a clip. But how I would describe it is:
- I go into vocal fry, not even just at the end of sentences but just randomly. I can't stop it or prevent it, it's not an active choice.
- I feel like I'm expending too much air sometimes, but my voice sounds tight regardless? Like, it doesn't sound like I'm releasing air but I'm running out anyway which leads to gravelliness.
- I feel like I have to open my mouth really wide to get certain vowels out, which leads to a really weird accent sometimes.
- My voice just cracks constantly despite being well past puberty.
- In general, my voice is permanently shaky. If you asked me to sing "ahhhhhh" at a comfortable pitch, it will be incredibly pitchy and "vibrate" uncontrollably and quickly.
I do have asthma, and I do have anxiety. That said, this issue persists even if I'm actively on steroid medication for Asthma or not. It persists when I'm on or off antihistamines. It persists whether I'm alone in my house with no one around, or in public speaking.
I sound like a 13 year old, and it's genuinely causing issues at work as I work in a call centre. On a personal level, it probably is my greatest insecurity. I have an appointment with an ENT soon to see if they might be able to figure something out, but I thought I'd ask here in case anyone's had similar issues.
I will also note that I lose my voice quickly but not fully - I just get into a really gravelly broken sounding tone, or go full vocal fry. Another thing, probably not related - I cannot make my voice low at ALL. I can barely get into the third octave. I don't think this is actually a genetic thing, but when the rest of the males in my family are baritones... that's weird to me.
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Are nodules or some other actual, physical issue the potential cause here? If so, then I'll wait for my ENT appointment. But I just wanna know what I could possibly be looking at.