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Don't know what to think. Help. I'm 19. When I started college a year ago I met a guy, he's the best friend I have and one of the best people I know, he stutters (in a kinda severe way) and I learned a lot about stuttering from him. To be clear, I always have had some sort of speaking problems, such as tone, volume or saying certain sounds. Stuttering has always been a minor part of those problems. Since college started I had spend a lot of time together with my friend, many hours a day. Talking about stuttering was something we would often do. Since a while I have noticed I stutter more than usual, plenty of times a day, but no important mistakes. A few days ago while talking with one of my professors in class (in front of 120+ students) I struggled in a way I haven't done before, I got stuck in many sounds I wanted to make and I couldn't even say what I wanted to. After that I felt plenty of shame and I was angry at myself. My friend was pretty supportive and this is something I apreciate a lot. But that didn't stop me thinking about what a shitty mistake I did. After that was the first time I was actually afraid to even talk in public again. I wanted to take advice about this two things. 1. I know stuttering is not contagious, but in a psycological sense, is there any way of my friend having something to do with me stuttering way more? (Asked him about it, he said I didn't speak too well when I first met him) 2. How do I prevent this from getting worse? I don't want to make mistakes like this again Just want to know why is this happening, and how do I manage it