Is too much airway clearance damaging?

According to my speech therapist, proper huff coughing is not the problem in long-term cases (she has been working for 23 years, many of them with a pulmonologist who specializes in bronchiectasis.) She told me years of coughing and rough throat clearing damage the trachea and often the vocal chords. Breaking those habits over the past 7 years and replacing them has been very hard for me.
I am finally "almost" there. I have learned to keep my allergies controlled, sip liquids, do breathing exercises and suck on pectin-rich lozenges to keep my throat moist and soothed. This minimizes the clearing. And to stop myself as quickly as possible of hard coughing begins and switch to controlled breathing and huff coughs. These have taken about a year of practice and consciously interrupting myself to "do it right."

I asked Chatgbt a question about excessive airway clearance after I was coughing in the middle of the night, getting little sleep because it would keep me up huffing and puffing trying to clear my lungs. Bottom line, after some lengthy discussions with Chatbot I discovered I was trying so hard I was inflaming my throat and causing a dry cough. So, taking my robot's advice, I cut back the excessive huffing and puffing and now I sleep most nights and do not cough nearly as much. So to answer the question, in my mind overdoing it is harmful and best to chill and just do normal Saline and Acapella and then relax.

I do two virals of saline 7 percent, twice a day, totally four virals each day. I dont feel any side effects with my airway clearance. Dont clear your throat, but huff coughing.

I am also curious about overtreatment. I wound up with hemoptysis after nebulizing seven percent saline twice a day and using the Monarch vest for a least 30 minutes a day. I’ve cut out the vest for a short period, but yesterday stepped up the aerobika to 15 minutes a day three times a day. I wound up coughing all day long and produced much more mucus than normal. This morning I was drowning in mucus after exercising. It finally stopped after taking half a benadryl. Is what I’m experiencing allergies or an I overproducing mucus from too much airway clearance? If it matters, I have nodules all over all my lobes but no cavities.

Interesting, and once again, thank you for sharing your journey. I don’t seem to have much success with huff coughing. Aerobika, which I use with the autogenic drainage app, after saline nebbing is effective. Often, though, it seems that it takes a good hard cough to break something loose. After that more comes up easily.
Anna

Here's a how to on huff coughing in case we need a refresher:

Sue- I was glad to read your post.
I am trying to break the same habit of not clearing correctly and therefore needing to do a gentle huff cough. I realized a short while ago, common sense to me, that I needed to be more conscious and aware each time I want to clear my throat of what feels stuck there or when doing my air way clearance after nebulizing. It sure takes time to get it all together to do things the best way and best for each individual.
So you went from ginger gummies (and we know why) to pectin-rick lozenges. I need to change that one also for myself. I find that chewing a small piece of polar ice stick gum helps some but am wondering about my next visit to the dentist. I will look for the pectin-rich lozenges.
Barbara

Scoop- Thanks for sharing that again. This post you posted on another thread a while ago helped me. My last visit at with the RT said I was working too hard and your post helped me better understand. It is exactly what they try to get you to do by using the short clear flexible tube that they have you place in your mouth and hold it in firmly to help with learning how to do the huff cough.
Barbara

I have to rein in my working-too-hard-at-clearance also. It seems to creep back in when I'm on autopilot, which is why I know exactly where to find that how-to huff cough video!

@scoop
Scoop- Do you ever feel you have cleared completely??? I could go on clearing forever all day long. I just have to say....that's it for now. I do often huff cough throughout the day before doing another nebulizing session.
By the way I decided to do a third session (as you have mentioned in posts) of nebulizing about an hour and a half before bed and it seems to help me sleep better. For me I have not been using more than two 4l viles a day and it's working. I find that nebulizing (without the Aerobika attached) with deep breathing in of the saline does the trick. At least it appears to be so far.
Barbara