Thought I was making so much progress. Feel like I'm back at square one :(
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Thought I was making so much progress. Feel like I'm back at square one :( I am 20 years old and have had a stutter as far as I can remember. A few months back I started seriously working in becoming more fluent. I concentrated in talking slower, improving my social skills and confidence and remembering body language like eye contact and straight back. I never expect to fully lose my stutter but I am aiming for increased fluency. For a while it worked, people wouldn't find out that I had a stutter until long into knowing them, I was able to fluently answer questions in class and speak in public. I was overjoyed. But recently my speech just seems to be leaving me. My specific problem is that I keep in getting blocked on filler words like 'you know' and 'like'. As I learnt from my therapist, you originally use these words to stop the stuttering but then they become part of the stutter itself. I can feel my stammer going from mild back towards the more severe, highly noticeable kind of stutter. I try not to get down about my stutter, I know there are way worse disabilities, but it's just been bumming me out. I've recently started getting anxious again about social interaction, because I *know* that I will at some point look stupid. When I'm out with my girlfriend and I stutter horrendously I think she must think 'oh god why am I here with this embarrassment'. It's not fun. I'm not giving up, I'm still going to aim for greater fluency, I'm just bummed out and needed to vent. I already feel a little better :)