Stop Committing Voice Suicide

This book was a miracle for me! Everything he said in the book was true, all the things I have been told about my voice. I felt like I was reading my life story. Yes, he spent some time talking about the establishment, but only when some of the advise did not make sense. I have already recommended this book or any other book from Dr Cooper to my friends, coworkers and family. He honestly saved my job because my voice was a huge issue in my reviews and termination was bound to happen. Now I know how to keep my voice healthy. Thanks Dr. Cooper!

Dr.Morton Cooper points out how simple, natural voice techniques of finding and using one's true voice rather than a forced, "authoritative" or other phony voice can help avoid horrendous problems such as losing one's voice, cancer, or other emergency situations. He avoids toxic "therapies" and surgery to "cure" loss of voice and instead goes to the cause of these extreme problems leading to prevention.

I was impressed with the book and I am going to require it as required reading for my ComD 681 course on voice disorders. In fact, I have already submitted the order through the University Bookstore. I have learned over a long history of treating voice problems, that a great deal of what Dr. Cooper says is "right-on target" and I believe this book will serve as a valuable resource for self-help and for bringing "reality" to the preparation of future speech-language pathologists. I resonate completely with Dr. Cooper's stated need to "simplify", and I believe that he has done that very well.Professor and Head,Department of Communicative Disorders,Major US University

I wish this book would have been available many years ago when my voice began to fail. My voice progressively worsened to the point where I was whispering/howling and enduring terrible tension just to communicate. All along the doctors were telling me my health was fine and I was able to continue working in an industrial environment that required speaking loudly to be heard! Well I finally fell apart and ended up at a major medical center where they took one look at my vocal cords and recommended surgery. After surgery I eventually ended up using an electro-larynx to communicate, which added stress as the emotions wanted to be expressed verbally (with my natural voice).Every doctor in the world should be required not only to read this book, but, show some degree of comprehension of the material presented. I understand what this book has to say, as I've been through the progression of severe vocal damage. I also discovered that it is most difficult to find a doctor who understands and can offer help. I highly recommend this book to everyone, including, people without or who don't believe they have a voice problem. Prevention may save some of the misery I've endured.

Review from Travel MagazineJune 8, 1996This book is addressed to people suffering from sore throat, throat clearing, weak voice, poor projection, pain when talking, stangled voice, voice strain, hoarse voice, lump in throat, tired voice, deep-throat voice, pain when talking, throat tension, or nasality. Much of the book is about coping with strangled voice, medically known as spasmodic dysphonia. A decade ago, the fashionable treatment for this was surgery on the vocal cords, & now it's injection of one of the cords with a small amount of botulinum toxin, a deadly drug, often referred to as botox. The injection causes partial paralysis of a vocal cord, & brings the voice back, on a temporary basis, for varying periods from a month to 6 months. A recent price for the injection was $500. Dr. Cooper is a maverick who decries both surgery & botox, along with a host of palliative treatments that don't help at all. His ultrasimple solution is to first make sure you're breathing in the diaphragm & not the chest, then press the area between the ribs & just at the bottom of the breastbone while humming, then say a word such as "Right" while humming. A resonance should be felt around the nose & lips, indicating that this is the correct placement of the sound. Dr. Cooper believes most vocal troubles come from placing the sound too low in the chest or too high in the head. He cites "miraculous" immediate success with some patients, including celebrities, & good results over time with many others. If you have a voice problem, this is a book you should read.