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How Valuable is Your Voice
By Dr. Carol Fleming

I smoked. I quit. It was no piece of cake, I assure you. So I'm going to share my experience of quitting to illustrate the methods of a desperate, humiliated woman. I do this in hopes that I may inspire someone out there to get cigarettes out of their lives. My concern is for the preservation of your voice, of course, but also your health and your life.

First, consider the dynamics of my situation in the winter of 1981:

I have a Ph.D. in speech pathology: I know damned well the relationship between cancer and smoking. I work with patients who have had laryngectomys and I smoke a pack a day (But, filtered!).
I am attending a conference at Juilliard School in New York City with voice experts-medical, singing, voice therapists - from all over the world (who are also clear about the role of smoking and pathology).
I have such a bad cold with extreme throat and lung congestion that I seek out stronger cigarettes so I can get the smoke to cut through the thick coating of congestion.
I am staying in a loft with a cousin who makes me go out on the roof to smoke (in the wind and snow).

What is wrong with this picture?

My smoking supply was getting low, so I went out into the night, in the blowing snow, looking for a place that would sell me the most mentholated, strong cigarettes I could find. I am sick and I am cold yet I am determined to find those cigarettes. But before I found them, I came upon a power pole with a printed sign on it that said: "SMOKING IS FILTHY AND STUPID SO STOP IT"

I swear to God that sign was right in front of my face with the impact of a sign from heaven. There it was and who could deny it. The full irony brought points one through four (above) vividly to my mind. I took the last of my last cigarettes and put them in the small garbage receptacle beneath the sign and walked rapidly away.

Staying away from cigarettes was not that hard while I was at the conference and while I was incredibly sick. I knew the tough time would come when I felt better.

So I laid a plan to help me through this period:

I bought a solid silver flute, found a flute teacher and committed myself to daily practice. I figured what I spent on the flute was my lifetime smoking budget. At the same time, a flute demands solid breath support.
I took up jogging. The wheezing, gasping misery took a while to change into effortless breathing. I could even smell the flowers as I ran! I figured I was clearing out the damage of 20 years of smoking.
I clipped out all articles in various newspapers on the various kinds of damage that smoking does and kept them in a folder for review whenever I felt like smoking.

This was surprisingly helpful in regaining my resolve. This worked for me. I would be so pleased to have this, or something akin to it, help you get over smoking.

There is something that could be regarded as 'good news' for smokers! As reported in recent medical literature, we now have the first case of a total laryngeal transplantation that actually resulted in the restoration of a normal voice. This means that a damaged 'voice-box' was removed and replaced with a 'donated, undamaged' one and that it works. Trust me, this is sensational news.

For those of you who are working on cultivating cancer in your throat (i.e. smoking), this means that you may be a candidate for this procedure after you have had your larynx removed due to cancer and have remained disease-free after five years.

Doesn't that make you feel better?

I've never forgotten that message on the power pole. I hope you won't either.

Contact us today to discuss how our workshops, coaching and training products can improve your Personal Professionalism and Communication Impact.

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