commentr/StutterMay 27, 2023

Content

I don't know how old you are, but when I was younger, the stuttering was so bad I could barely speak in most situations. I am now almost 39 and outside of some fringe cases at work and the occasional block, it's not really an issue. I think part of that was because I was repeatedly put in to situations where I had to work on it every day. This was by way of part time jobs when I was younger, then jobs related to my career. There were always periods of adjustment accompanied by situations of high anxiety and fear where I stuttered the shit out of them. But I got through them, over and over, and after awhile, you realize that these scenarios you create in your head that revolve around stuttering are only as bad as you let them be. I also gained confidence in myself through these trial by fire situations and desensitized myself by having to repeat those scenarios daily. An example is that I had a job where I monitored customer servers, and if I found issues, I had to call them in the middle of the night, wake them up, use pre-canned openers ("Hi, this is taborlin from [company_name], I'm sorry to wake you...") which is something I massively struggle with, and I did this around 10-15 times a night. I still struggle daily, and I still work on it. I still get embarrassed by it, and it still gets me down at times, but I have the tools and mentality to deal with it. My advice to you is to find something that you struggle with (ordering at a fast food drive-thru, making a call, etc.) and just do it over and over again. Do it so often that you get used to every outcome (complete fluency, complete disaster, partial fluency, partial disaster, etc.) After awhile, it's just another call instead of making a call as a stuttering person.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCauses & VariabilityEmotional Experience

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionStress & Fight/FlightHope & Motivation

Codes (2)

ordering_service_encounterphysical_state