Hollowed out voice box, feels like I can't speak.

Really hoping I can get some help here or some advice. I hope this is the correct forum (if not, can someone move it?)

So I've been experiencing a feeling of not being able to speak or Vocal Cord Dysphonia for around 3 - 4 months now. It is a sensation of where I cannot control the tone of how I speak or my voice. Everything comes out very monotone or like "hollowed words". At my job where I would be working my normal cashier shift, people would come up and I would engage in the usual small talk and experience these symptoms. For whatever reason every other time I would respond or try to engage I would not be able to say things the way I wanted to, I would get choked up or they wouldn't come out right. It was likened to poor timing and poor enunciation. It got so uncomfortable that I eventually had to quit and leave my job.

I don't know exactly where in the body the source of this stems from but It does feel as though it comes from either my throat or my chest. Sometimes I have a feeling of air obstruction when I breathe through my upper left throat or Larynx area, like it's a tightened feeling. Sometimes when speaking I get a feeling of not even wanting to speak or talk as it becomes that uncomfortable.

Most of the time when I look up these symptoms I get diagnosis like anxiety. This is not the case, I don't have anxiety. Anxiety is the By - product of what I have. I would be around my family or people I know and still have this syndrome. When I speak I can't speak "from the heart" and cannot execute normal emphasis on words. The way we try and persuade and communicate I have to stress and over emphasize just to make a point which can sometimes come across as having a tone or attitude. It is very deterring.

Hopefully someone can give me some feed back or advice on this issue. I am currently in the process of seeing an ENT after much pestering. My primary care doctor thought it was a side affect from my medication, I winged off of it and still had the same problems. He also wanted me to wait until Covid to see a speech therapist which didn't seem entirely forth coming. I currently only take Lithium for Depression.

I've tried my inhaler as I do have Asthma which I thought I outgrew, and running. Also stopped smoking (quit for a year prior. took it back up for 1-2 every other day for a couple months), been off them for over a week now.

If anyone can help me out or has a similar experience, I would love to hear from you.

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