PUBERPHONIA IS CURABLE



PUBERPHONIA AWARENESS NEEDED!




I am a 40 year victim of puberphonia.

It started with a very bad case of mono at age 14. I had such a sore throat that the Doctor's orders were...."Don't talk"...for several weeks. By the time I got back to school the teachers noticed and commented on my raspy voice. The voice turned higher pitched and stayed that way for the next 40 years.

At one point I had a specialist take a look under general anesthesia. He said there were scars on the vocal chords that "welded" them together and couldn't be fixed.

Many years later, I took a retirement job as a cashier in a busy store. Every fourth person would ask me, "Do you have a cold?" or "Is it cancer?", or "Is that your normal voice?".

The worst was when a woman broke into laughter and said, "Sorry, but you must be the "Mouse Man"!!! Then she asked whether I would be here for a while. She wanted to go home and get her Cub Scout Troop to come down and meet the Mouse Man."

My employer was concerned about my voice since I couldn't be heard when making the many announcements that were needed on the public address system.

So....after taking a lifetime of abuse, and recently becoming the target of some pretty dreadful people, I went to a nose and throat specialist. His examination showed that there were absolutely NO SCARS on my vocal chords. "We have a wonderful Speech Pathologist, who I'm sure can help you. Would you like to see her? I DID!!!

My visit began with..."I can cure you, if you let me." By the time I left the office, I could hear the other voice that had always been there. We met twice a week for maybe a month.

You decide if I'm cured. Listen to a sound file I made.

I think this will give you all some hope.

Much of the cure is exercises. The rest is psychological. What a difference it will make in your life. People will take you seriously and listen to you. Keep searching for the right doctor.

One of the exercises...believe it or not, was to say the word "boom" as loud and as low pitched as you can.

How many Doctors have I seen over the last 40 years? Most would just ask, "Is that your normal voice?

The Doctors need to be educated. Puberphonia is so psychologically devastating to a young man..and it is curable.

If you click on the banner at the bottom of my webpage it will take you to the software site that I used to make those recordings.

Even if you just used the recording feature, you can email a sample of your voice to specialists and hope someone will answer you with a solution. It is worth the try.

SLP'S...would you like to be included on a list of those willing to help puberphonia victims? Email me with your particulars.

E Mail me at any time with questions or comments.

Tom Feeney, York, Maine

"Thank you for writing and posting your story - I hope it will find its way to all ENT practices as well as general practitioners' offices."



"Just wanted to thank you for your website on Puberphonia. It was an absolute godsend. I'm 18 now and since I was 14 I've had massive trouble speaking in crowds, I couldn't shout and I was always mistaken for a Miss on the phone. It was as if my voice was breaking and then stopped midway. I didn't know the condition existed until I found your website. I booked to see a speech therapist at my university, and she managed to solve the problem after about 3 sessions, simply by training me to use my voice differently. I now sound completely different and I can finally enjoy a normal social life. Once again, thank you".



I LOVED reading your story! You must be so proud of your progress. I can only imagine how your friends and family reacted to your new voice and the new you! So glad you were persistent and were led to a professional. It is truly amazing how many people think all we do is "Sss and Rs." Hats off to you, your SLP, and the right doctor who knows the truth about our profession!



I just wanted to say thanks for posting your website, I suffered with puberphonia for 16 years (I'm 29 now) and have been cured for about 6 months now. I literally felt held in shackles for all of those years. A week after my first therapy session I was outside mowing grass one day when I lady stopped and asked for directions. With my old voice I never would have been able to help her because I wouldn't have been able to talk over the noise of the traffic, but that moment I said I was going to use my new voice. I did, and the lady didn't have to ask me to repeat a single word, I was thrilled!
Reading your story about the "Mouse Man" almost brought tears to my eyes because I have memories like that myself. It certainly is a very painful thing for a young man to have to go through isn't it, and it's emotionally scaring. About two years ago I had a prowler outside of my house one night, when I called the cops the dispatcher thought I was a woman. When the cops got here they couldn't understand why there was a man here when the dispatcher told them it was supposed to be a woman. I stayed depressed for weeks after that, it was so embarrassing.

I can remember when I was 13, it just so happened I started going through puberty during summer vacation and school was out. When I went back to school the following year everyone was saying "whats wrong with your voice?", but I never really noticed anything. I remember one kid calling me Daffy Duck. I still don't understand what caused me to develop puberphonia, and I probably never will. Thank God for the internet though, or else I would have suffered all of my life. It's still sometimes embarrassing when I see people that I haven't seen in awhile because I sound so different, but I dont care, it was worth it!

There certainly needs to be more education out there about this, especially here in the US. When I went to the ENT and told him that I thought I had puberphonia he looked at me like I was crazy, but thankfully I found a wonderful therapist who was willing to listen.

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Ownership: This site is owned and maintained by T. Feeney, 23 Saltwater Drive, York, Maine 03909.

My email is tomfeen@maine.rr.com and tomfeen@yahoo.com