I’m 17 (male) it’s my first time posting on this app but I’ve been struggling with my voice for about 3 years now. I’m honestly confused and worried because it feels like my voice never fully recovered after getting sick and overusing it in 8th grade.
Back then, my mom’s boyfriend smoked a lot and her car constantly smelled like cigarette smoke. I hated the smell and would literally hold my breath during rides instead of asking to roll the windows down which was stupid of younger me. Around the same time, I was also yelling a lot while gaming and talking with my friend group online.
Eventually I got really sick with a bad cough, throat pain, I would cough up clumps of mucus, and I basically lost my singing voice for a while. I assumed it would pass, but things never fully returned to normal.
Before all this happened, singing felt easy and natural for me. As a kid I had a high voice, a strong head voice, could access whistle notes, and could even casually talk in a lighter/head-dominant voice comfortably. I wasn’t perfect, but my voice felt flexible and healthy to the point I could even imitate how others sang or spoke.
Now, years later, I still struggle with:
- vocal fatigue after 10–15 minutes
- voice cracks and strain outside chest voice
- inconsistent pitch/control
- mixed voice basically disappeared
- head voice sometimes turning into air instead of sound
- losing most of my whistle range
- dryness and instability while singing
- struggling to switch notes/bad vocal agility
The weird part is that some days my voice randomly feels much better, especially in the shower or after steam. Sometimes my mixed voice partially comes back and I’ve even briefly hit whistle notes again, but it never lasts long as my voice will dry out or get fatigued.
I’ve been trying to recover my voice for years through hydration, tea, steaming, and vocal exercises. It’s gotten better from the rough start I had but it’s still a hard struggle and a burden to recover from. I make music now and long singing but it’s honestly depressing feeling limited by my voice and seeing others sing with more ease than I can knowing I could’ve been just as good.
Does this sound like vocal damage, tension, poor technique after illness, puberty changes, or something else? Is this something people can actually recover from with training or should I see someone professional? Even so please someone help me here with any tips?
I genuinely want honest answers because I miss how my voice used to feel. I want to grow to be a vocalist, but it feels like my voice got nerfed and will never fully recover.