**"I tell myself I don’t stutter"** Distracting yourself from the stutter trigger by focusing on affirmations (like "I don't stutter"), has a positive effect and negative effect. ​ **Positive effect:** \- you stop compulsion because you hide yourself from the triggers ​ **Negative effect is:** If you distract yourself like this from the stutter trigger and its anxiety, then you * don't build tolerance against this trigger and its stutter feeling.--> You experienced this after you stopped using distraction, where you still had no tolerance against it * haven't learned that 'triggers' are not real in your mind * haven't learned to disconfirm expectancy * haven't learned to change your response to and perspective regarding the trigger Normally we stutter because we believe in the trigger and react to it. By doing distractions to focus on affirmations, you are telling your body that the trigger is real. -> this is the opposite of what we want. We want to make the trigger less real, less important and with less meaning in our perspective so that we 1. don't do fight or flight response 2. don't hide behind stuttering and triggers 2. don't change triggers. ​ By changing our hardwired trigger 'I can't' to 'I can' you tell your body that the trigger is real because you 'need' to change it. If you 'need' to change 'I can' to 'I can't' then you believe in the trigger to begin with (which causes a stutter anticipation). So, then you are already too far, you are already absorbed in the fake story you have told yourself. The more you say I can, the harder your instinct says 'I can't'. It's not about pulling the rope harder, it's about letting go of the rope by not reacting to your trigger that says "I can't". If you observe the trigger, without reacting, while not doing compulsion, then you learn that the trigger is not real to begin with, then you don't mind stuttering as you don't believe it is from a disorder anymore and you stop doing fight or flight response and finally you stop blaming it on your disorder. ​ ​ **Conclusion:** ​ Distraction stops compulsion, because you stop thinking about triggers. So it's more effective to approach your perspective about and response to the triggers (instead of approaching the distraction itself) in order for you (and your instinct) to learn from it.