You have a vocal injury? How did you do it?

Singing world: We have a serious problem, and it must stop.

This problem is so pervasive that it still exists in the clinical world too:  The idea that someone might "cause" their vocal injury, and in doing so, that they (or their private voice teacher) are somehow guilty of some horrendous wrong-doing.  (Side-note:  This mentally does not exist in any clinician that I would ever recommend to someone.  It still exists in some, but not all.)  (Okay, side-side-note:  I was just a guilty as everyone in this mentality prior to entering speech-language pathology, but I have turned 180 on these beliefs and I think everyone else should too.  Here is why.)

Let's start with this example:  The Olympic gold-medalist Lindsey Vonn.  If you clicked on the link, you'll read about how she wasn't able to complete in the 2014 Winter Olympics due to a knee injury.  

How many of you out there thought to yourself:  "Well, Lindsey Vonn is a terrible skier.  She just doesn't have good technique.  She doesn't even train with a good coach.  I heard she makes poor decisions in terms of what course to run, what competitions to sign up for, and when to stop.  She just doesn't have what it takes to really have a career as a skier."

Personally, I've never heard of anyone looking at a high-level athlete and scoffing at an injury they may sustain.  So why do we singers do that to each other?  Now replace "Lindsey Vonn" with "Maria Callas," "Natalie Dessay," or "Julie Andrews."  Do the above comments seem more justified all of the sudden?  If so, WHY?  Why are professional singers any different than high-level athletes?  Why would sustaining an injury of any kind make a singer (or their voice teacher) automatically deserving of scorn?

Here's the big secret that really shouldn't be a surprise:  No one intends to injure their voice!  It's an accident that's scary to deal with.  There is no reason people dealing with the emotional impact of those consequences should also carry the guilt of causing their injury.  It's not a necessarily a sign of poor singing technique and it also isn't necessarily a sign of bad voice teaching.  Often, the direct cause of an injury is very hard to determine.  (NOTE:  Cause is different than time of occurrence.  In some injuries, like a vocal hemorrhage, we can determine the time or day that the injury likely occurred.  However, the direct cause of the hemorrhage can still involve multiple variables.)

Did you ever:
-Go to an amusement park and lost your voice a little from screaming on the roller coasters?
-Sing a well-paying gig while sick because you had just enough voice to get through the gig?
-Go out to noisy restaurants/bars regularly with your friends/cast mates after singing for hours daily?
-Unknowingly sung (uncomfortably) with acid reflux for several months before getting looked at by your doctor?

I bet most of you have at least done one of the things on that list.  In some people, some of these behaviors can contribute to the developing of a voice disorder and in others, no disorder develops.  Truth is, even the best vocal scientists can't predict who will develop a voice disorder/injury and who won't.  Too many factors are at play.

Blame does nothing but inflict additional damage to someone dealing with a medical condition. Injuries are accidents that happen sometimes to good singers and that need to be dealt with in the best way possible.  That is all.  Vocal injuries for a singer are exactly like a knee injury for a pro skier.  Until we can travel back in time and prevent accidents from happening, guilt and blame does nothing but make it worse.  What is needed is a good plan to get the voice to a condition that, ideally, will meet the patient's vocal needs.  That is what a medical team (e.g., ENT & SLP) is for.

So perhaps the next time you hear someone say he/she is dealing with an injury, instead of saying "How did you do it?"  Say "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that" and maybe offer condolences and wish them a speedy recovery.

We keep calling ourselves "vocal athletes."  It's time we start treating each other as such, especially when an injury occurs.