commentr/StutterAugust 21, 2022

Content

I've been in a similar situation for years now, but about two months ago I started some pretty intensive (four 45-minutes sessions a week) speech therapy and its actually been helping. For me, if I'm either alone and talking to myself, singing, or in the middle of a therapy session with my SLP I'll be anywhere from 95-98 percent fluent. But when I'm anywhere else it's like there's this tiny, invisible, hair-trigger switch that gets flipped and talking is often a struggle again. On a super-positive note, the speech tools/techniques that I've learned from therapy really do help when I'm talking "in the wild," but the trick is to actually have the guts to use them. I'm still hip-deep in my old learned habit/tendency to want to do ANYTHING to sound "normal" and not stutter when I speak, *even if doing so means I'm disfluent*. It'll take some time and a lot of disciplined, conscious effort to get myself to a point where using my speech tools in public is a completely unconscious event, but it's by no means impossible. Hang in there! Have you had a chance to see a speech therapist?

Themes

Coping & AdvocacyEmotional ExperienceTherapy & Professional

Subthemes

Fluency TechniquesVoluntary Stuttering & ExposureAnxiety & Social JudgmentSeeking Therapy