commentr/StutterAugust 29, 2023

Content

I'm pretty sure your stuttering has worsened because of your fear of stuttering in the workplace. The same thing happened to me when I was nervous about my visa interview for my masters abroad. I have faced different ups and downs in my stuttering journey but what worked for me in the end was to be comfortable somewhere. I actually started to stutter to myself at that point in time and I practised reading loudly, something which I never considered to be useful for a stutter. It really helped because I wasn't really social with my classmates and everybody just did their own work. If at all there were group projects, communication happened via chat. So, what happened was, the only times I spoke would be situations where I stutter and it became a habit, which is where reading and talking to myself helped a lot. Afterwards, I went to one food cart everyday to practise ordering and I became comfortable with that as well. I still stuttered, but as I was feeling better psychologically, I moved on to other places like my part time work where I had the role of a receptionist at the library. One of the other weird things that happened to me was that I stuttered with people who I was comfortable with and stuttered rarely with people I was a little comfortable with but not too comfortable, like meeting my elder brother's friend for the first time at the university. I realised that forgetting I have a stutter and trying to talk backfired and that I should really focus on talking and be prepared for my stuttering moments. My stuttering severely reduced when I detected my stutter beforehand, took a pause to breathe while focussing on the word, and then blurted it out successfully. All this is what helped me during this phase of my stuttering. My requirements here were different than my previous bad phases, so if not these tips, I am sure you will figure out how to help yourself somehow!

Themes

Coping & AdvocacySchool & Work

Subthemes

Voluntary Stuttering & ExposureFluency TechniquesEmployment & Career