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Call Center Stuttering Hello incredible people, I just want to share this with you as I am going through quite a lot at the moment and I feel the need to be heard (or read, lol). I have been seeing a lot of topics on this thread about improving stuttering, managing it or just coping with it. Some are pretty heartbreaking. I want to tell you my story, which may or may not help, but I'll take my chances. First of all, you guys need to know that I've been stuttering ever since I can remember, I can't put my finger on something that happened that "activated" this for me. It's just how I am. And recently, I've come think of it as "who I am". It's part of me and I don't try to deny it or hide it. My life has been so much better when I owned up to how I am(broad term) and how I speak. (For those of you who haven't seen "Life with a stammer" by Walter Scott, I recommend you do. It is an amazing speech and it really gives a voice to the struggle of stuttering. Also, I highly recommend watching some of the videos from the McGuire programme. Personally, it helped me a lot. ) I'm guessing most of you agree with me when I say that highschool sucks when you have a stutter. I was a lonely kid, I played more than 10 hours a day on the computer and that's because I had to go to class. On my free days, I could go 18-20 hours with no sweat. I barely had any real and meaningful relationships, I had no hope for improving my speech and being "normal" and doing mundane stuff ( I actually went to the store one day and I wanted to ask for "Eggs" but I just said "E-e-e-e-g-g" for about 20 seconds and the lady just straight-up laughed in my face). I thought I hit rock bottom. I contemplated suicide often and yes, I was pretty dramatic as a kid. From that point on, I thought to myself, what can go worse than this? Well, nothing. It actually got better, but don't think of it as an overnight thing. It was a yearly progress. Slightly better is sometimes huge. Fast-forward, I kept on having embarrasing encounters with people, couldn't order what I wanted at a restaurant, when I had a girlfriend, hanging out with her friends was usually scary af and awkward, but two things helped out immensely. I wanted to talk and express myself, even if this meant feeling embarrassed. I put myself out there ocasionally. I do not consider myself a brave person. It takes me a lot of thinking and re-thinking to do things...and most of the time I don't even do them and postpone. But I sometimes forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and do shit that I'm afraid of. I found it was one of the best things that I could do for myself.That's because of the second thing that helped immensely which is CONFIDENCE. My stutter is the same as it was when I was a kid. I haven't done any speech therapy since then. NO new techniques that I've learned since then. It's just practice. I spoke to people and I put myself out there. In college, I got a great boost of confidence because I started most of my conversations with new people by being very open about my stutter and telling them up-front that I stutter. 99% of people were really chill about it and maybe even curious. From there on, my stuttering got really light, not because I don't ocasionally repeat sounds or get stuck on words, but because when I do, I don't think much of it ( and most people don't, believe me). Some years ago, if you asked me what was one thing that I could never do from a professional standpoint, I would tell you I could never, ever, speak on the phone 8 hours a day, a.k.a. working in a call center. Today, my friends, was my first day at my new call center job. I haven't been as proud of myself as I am now. Winning an Oscar is shit compared to how I feel now. I've done what I've been telling myself was impossible for virtually all my life. I have stuttered during my first calls, pretty badly actually and I also did on my last calls. It doesn't matter, what matters is that I'm going to be sticking to it, no matter how bad I stutter, I'll get right back up that saddle and continue talking. This is it. This is my story. I've wanted you guys to know it too because I would be honored if it gave you some hope that things can and will get better. ​ \*Writing this down made me think of something, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I would like to make a support group for stuttering, but video and audio. Getting people to practice speaking and maybe gain some confidence in the process. If some of you guys or girls are interested, give me a private message. With love, KentCMi (Radu)