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Obsessed by my name Hello everyone, I've been wanting to post this message for a while. I have an issue that you probably understand very well—it's stuttering on my name. It started two years ago when I moved to a new city where I knew no one. It was quite horrible because I thought about it all the time. My "mantra" is not to let my fears guide me, so I try not to stop living because of it, and I managed to establish myself a bit in this city despite my emerging phobia. Since then, I've moved back to the city where I was before. But weirdly, I've kept my fear. I realized that stuttering on my name wasn't really new; I remembered several times it had happened before the first move, but I didn't pay much attention to it in my life, and it hadn't marked me to the point of obsession. But now it really is an obsession. Even though I'm back in my city, where I know people, etc., I'm really scared of new people. Sometimes I manage to control it by introducing myself first (that's my best solution), but I'm terrified that someone will ask for my first name and I'll freeze. I calm myself by remembering that it doesn't actually happen most of the time, but there have also been a few cases where I've really blocked, to the point where feelings of shame and despair overwhelmed me. And it was quite traumatic, even though the people I was talking to were nice about it (I couldn't get my name out, but I explained why). In fact, now I'm afraid to undertake certain things in my life for fear of having to introduce myself. I even think about using a simpler name sometimes but I'd rather not. But above all, I don't want to give in to fear. I'm not like that, and it really depresses me not to be able to forget, as was the case before, where even if it happened it wasn't a big deal in my mind. And the thing is, I am quite sociable, I loved meeting people before that, so I really want to overcome it. Really it's become obsessive. I've talked about it in therapy, but it hasn't really unlocked anything for me (I am thinking about hypnotherapy now). Actually, if I'm talking to you about this, even though I imagine the topic has already been discussed many times, it's to exorcise it out of me a bit, and even more to get your best advice. Your best tricks that have helped you or allow you to overcome this problem. Especially for those who feel concerned by this notion of obsession. How did you do it? I'll take all your best advice. Thank you ✌️