commentr/StutterDecember 8, 2019

Content

I have been where you are many times my friend. I almost didn’t go to graduate school because I heard it was mostly presentations and projects. I was having anxiety and depression and every other emotion that people talk about on here. I like that the other Redditors are trying to motivate you but I want to make one thing clear: stuttering does not equal failure. Avoidance is failure. Quitting is failure. Not pursuing your goals is failure. You were VICTORIOUS today! The ONLY thing that got me through college is changing my criteria for victory and defeat. I am a person who stutters, and so are you. You, most likely, are going to stutter when you talk. By letting your fluency determine whether or not you succeeded is a recipe for disaster. Once I decided that failure was NOT doing the presentation everything changed. Doing the presentation was a victory, regardless of fluency. I changed my success criteria and started racking up victories. Public speaking, just like any other skill, takes practice and you get better over time. Soon I was actually enjoying them, I started having fun with them. And guess what? My fluency improved too. The reason you had the longest stutter of your life was due to the stress response. That goes away with practice. The more you do anything the easier it gets. Keep doing them and you will have less and less stress response. Try and have fun with it, you won’t die I promise. You’re on the right track. I’m a Speech Language Pathologist too ;) Keep your head up you god damned badass...you won today!

Themes

Emotional ExperienceIdentity & DisabilitySchool & WorkCauses & Variability

Subthemes

Helplessness & AgencyAcceptance & PrideEmployment & CareerPublic SpeakingSeverity & Fluctuation