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My personal analysis on stuttering Hello everyone, just like most people here I guess, I am a stutter. Today I was thinking about stuttering and everything related to it, and I wanted to break it down and make a more in depth analysis of this "condition", because I made some connections with other conditions I have, so to make things more clear I wanted to write them down. I am posting it here in order to, firstly have some confirmations and opinions on what I said, and secondly to maybe help anyone. So, what is stuttering? Stuttering is a speech disorder, which makes the person talking unable to fluently say words and sounds. In most cases it just involves blocks on some words, but in the worst ones, the person talking can't say anything without blocks and repetitions. A lot of people say that they started stuttering around the age of 6/8. Almost evey stutter already know on which words they are going to have problems, and so, in their minds, they make a plan on how to progress on their speech. This is called, by a lot of therapists, preplanning or speech planning. Everyone does speech planning, but while normal speakers think about the best words or phrases to incentive their speech, stutters try to find the best way to avoid repeating a word, by avoiding it, by saying something before the actual word, or by saying a synonymous. According to the scientific community there isn't a cure to this speech impediment. And in my opinion this is the key, because: Stuttering isn't the cause. Stuttering is the consequence. What do I mean by the consequence? The consequence of what? This is where things get more personal, because anyone is different from others and so they have a different backstory on why they started stuttering. Most people can't even recall the moment or the event which made them stuttering. It just started one day and they had to accept it. But think about it. Everyone stutters a bit. Even presidents, actors, youtubers, radio hosts. If you listen closely to their speech, you'll notice how many times they hesitate, blocks, repeat words and so on. In fact when I started to notice it, I realized at least 1/3 of my classmates had noticeable hesitations, to the point that sometimes they are made fun of by others classmates. But if they don't stutter, then why they "stutter"? Well, some of the reasons can be they may fear the judgment of others about what they are going to say, they are finding the right words or maybe they are just insecure in that social situation. But surely they are not suttering because they fear their blocks, which is the line between normal speakers and stutters. Now I want to share a bit the story of my stutter, because really adds up to what I said earlier. I am a stutter since the age of 8, and I stuttered until 14, when I stopped for 3 years, then at 17 I started again. I have recordings of me talking before 8 and I had pretty clear speech without any major impediment. Then at 8 it all started. For all those years me and my family always had no clue on why I started stuttering, until at 14/15 for some reason, I just stopped. Imma be real my life didn't really improve that much. I realized later I actually stopped stuttering, because for some time I still had the feeling I would block and sometimes I actually stuttered, but most of the words just came out fluently. Then at 17 I started stuttering again. In the first days I didn't notice it, but when I realized, my whole word crashed on me, by the fear that this monster came back again. But this time I was much more mature and noticed one thing. In the months in which I started stuttering again, I was getting teased a bit by some of my classmates, like everything I said wasn't taken seriously and they just immediatly tought I said bullshit, not even considering my opinions valid. Or they would just make fun of me doing normal things. I am someone who doesn't like fighting, and so because I usually become angry very easily, I would rather stay silent or laugh, than actually stand for myself and explain why they are wrong. This probably made them more sure that in their eyes I am stupid and so the teasing is true and based on something. and so they should go on. And since I am someone who also has a strong ego and absolutely hate being made fun of or not being evaluated enough. When they do it I feel like shit, and my self esteem just collapse. This, is the exact copy of what I felt when I also started stuttering at 8. Eveything, from the feelings I had, to the way I managed this situation, it's just the same. But stuttering wasn't the only thing that came back. I also would act more insecure in my movements and, funnily enough, I would make more mistakes than ever, because the fear of making something wrong and being teased, would just stop me from thinking clearly and my mind is in a fight or flight situation. Think about it. You are petting a dog, when it bites you and you have to go to the hospital. The next time you see that specific dog what does your body do? It tries to avoid it, and if the dog starts to come closer to you, you'll probably start shaking and you'll want to run the fuck away from it. Or another example, I heard some people online saying that when they are carrying drugs or other illegal things and a police officer stops them, they start to stutter a lot. The fear of saying something wrong or just the fear of the police officer, leads them to absolutely loose control of their speech and probably even their movements. So IMO, stutters started doing it because they were already insecure in that social situation, and they hesitated so much that someone, or even themself, made them notice it, and this was the beginning of the end. The next time they would talk, they would pre-plan their speech in order to not stutter, but the fear of stuttering just made their brain go in a fight or flight situation and they could only think of the fear of stuttering again. I think this makes sense, but I repeat, this is just my insights and it is based only on my experiences and observations, so I could be totally wrong and have just said a ton of bullshit. If you read all of this, please leave a comment in which you say why you agree or don't agree. I really want to finally give a reason behind this fucking disorder, which just makes our life harder than they already are.