I had gotten really excited about narrating books and, being housebound due to an injury, I spent around 3-4 hours each day reading aloud, recording and tinkering with background noise issues, palate clicks, learning how to use audacity, etc. Long story short, after three or four weeks of this my voice started to go a little scratchy, but as it didn't hurt I persisted for a couple more weeks when I started to get a slight sore throat. By that stage I stopped but my voice did not recover and continued to become hoarse/painful even just from normal day to day conversation. After two months of this, I saw my doctor, who's told me it sounds like I may have developed nodules on my vocal cords, and that in some cases these can require surgical removal.
I don't know if anyone else has experienced this here... I hadn't heard of such a thing before and had no idea before doing this, that one could 'damage' one's vocal cords just from talking. Anyway I thought I would post about it for the sake of mentioning it, and in case other people should take note to be careful with getting overly enthusiastic about reading, as I did! I'm heartbroken about having had to stop reading, but having a medical problem on top of it is just...
Having done a bit of research into it now, I've learned that anyone who spends a lot of time using their voice, even just for 'ordinary' speech, such as in lecturing or working in call centers or whatever, is considered to be in a 'high-risk' group for developing vocal cord damage, along with singers and actors and so forth... It seems that it's more likely to happen if one's general health is already compromised or there's emotional stress, etc., and I guess that would have been a factor in my case. I don't mean to scare anybody, just to say, be aware of your voice and how it feels, and if anyone's noticing any kind of strain, ignoring it may not be such a good idea! As I understand it, usually problems won't develop if you rest at the first sign of strain.
Violet
I guess moderation really is the way to go.