Advice: Within the last few years I think I’ve developed a sort of asthma-- mostly stress induced. I’m a grad student and have been giving seminar and conference papers, and will be assistant teaching again next year, and plan to make a career of this. For some reason, when I get about 5 minutes into my reading, I start to have coughing fits-- my throat dries up and I wheeze/ choke/cough my way through the remainder of the presentation. This happens even if I’m not particularly stressed-- there’s something about my reading voice, I think, or the extended speech that does it-- it might also be seasonally exacerbated by allergies. It happens even when I’m quite relaxed (sometimes even after I’ve had a few beers and have been telling a story to friends in a bar-- is it the volume of a public reading voice that causes it, perhaps?).
The GQ is, then, short of tossing a cough drop around in my mouth as I read, what would be good to drink to prevent/ control this? Water doesn’t work-- it makes my throat even drier for some reason. Chocolate milk? What do the professionals do?
IMHO it doesn’t sound psychosomatic. If this happens outside the public performance arena, chances are it’s physical. There is a good chance that you are not speaking with the proper mechanics. Speaking in such a way as to project your voice without yelling or shouting takes some practice. I’m sure there are books out there that address this, or you could wander over to the speech/communication department and ask someone there to help. I don’t want to be alarmist, but you may have a problem with your vocal cords. Nodes can and do form on vocal chords from improper vocalizing techniques. If you catch them early enough, they can be taken care of without surgery.
Professionals (at least in the disc jockey school)never drink milk. The old wives’ tale is that it congeals the mucus even faster.
Try coffee or tea, maybe with a dash of honey in it (in which case you’ll probably want tea.) If you think it is allergy-related, you might want to try a mild antihistamine like Benadryl about an hour before you’re scheduled to speak.
And I think Squid is on to something. There’s a physical aspect to speaking to groups that’s different from conversation – it’s different from simply talking louder. You might look into a public speaking course or even a voice coach.