Content
The Problem With Speech Therapists This is going to be long. But I want to start off by saying this is not intended to disrespect any Speech pathologist out there. I do understand that you guys have the best intentions and have seriously helped some people manage their stutter. I have had a speech impediment my entire life, or definitely for as long as I can remember. Mine has never been too severe and I am thankful for that. I know some of my brothers and sisters out here have it a lot worse than me. I am 24 now and I still experience blocks, especially on Ts, Fs and Ds. I was able to get through all of elementary, middle and high school without anyone seriously picking on me. I was active in 3 different sports, including wrestling, and I had plenty of friends. Plus, I had been going to school with these people for my entire life, so my stutter was the most subdued during this time because of how comfortable I was around them. However, after I graduated my comfortability at college was the worst it has ever been in my life. It was so bad that I dropped out for 3 straight years out of fear of going to class. The only success I had early on was when I started taking online classes when I was 21. I mostly stayed inside and didn’t go out and do the things I wanted to because I was afraid. For the first time in my life I went to a speech pathologist at the age of 20. At this point, I would’ve sacrificed anything in the world to become fluent. This particular Speech Therapist taught me how to shape my mouth into weird shapes when speaking, how to slow down my words to the pace that it sounded like I was mooing.. she also taught me how to breathe in when I speak or maybe it was breathe out, I don’t even remember now. And while this may have helped with my physical technique of speaking, it didn’t tackle the one thing that a speech pathologist with never understand; the mental scars of stuttering. I don’t care how many degrees or certifications you get in the field, you will never understand what it’s like to be a person who stutters. Speaking is such a natural thing for 99% of the population, they almost take it for granted. I’ve never met one person who has stuttered their entire life who wouldn’t want to know what it’s like to go just one week without stuttering. Just imagining the things you could say, do and accomplish. Things that we hold ourselves back on every single day out of fear. So when you sit there and think that the road to becoming cured of stuttering is in your office with the techniques that you learned in a classroom from another person who has never stuttered, step back and realize that you have no idea the things that are going on in this individuals head during basic tasks. The crushing anxiety of having to tell someone your name, order food, ask a question in class, or ask someone how their day is going. A lot of people who don’t know us think that we’re mean, anti social assholes because we don’t want to engage them in conversation or we sit in silence..when really there’s nothing more that we’d want to do than be able to just talk to you. I say all this to say, I believe that the road to improving your stutter or even getting past your stutter is with self improvement. I know it’s corny to say. But self help is really the only way in my opinion. As of now, there’s no magic pill, device or surgery that’s going to cure you and you can’t wait around banking on that for the future. Therapy will help you with the technical aspects of speaking, but it doesn’t help everybody and the people that it does help, it doesn’t tackle the mental issues that come with stuttering. You have to get yourself to the point where you’re confident in yourself. Realize that life is way too short and precious to not live it to the fullest. You have to understand that there are people out there who will not be accepting of your stutter, they will laugh at you or behind your back and honestly the best remedy for that is to say fuck them, and move on. Most likely you will never see this person again, even if you’re in high school, once you graduate you two will go your separate ways. While there are people out there like that, there are even more who are accepting of it and could give a fuck less whether you stutter or not. Fast forward to now, i’m 24 and I am graduating college with a degree in Information Systems this fall. I have plenty of friends who have gotten to the point where they don’t even notice I stutter anymore. It’s just who I am. I have a great job where I am the direct manager over 2 supervisors and numerous amounts of regular employees. I have went through plenty of interviews, some went great and some did not. I go out quite a bit and have been pretty successful with women. And YES, I still do stutter. But it getting better all the time, and I can’t wait to see what life has in store for me. But I can tell you one thing: I did not get this way because I paid a speech therapist to teach me stuff they learned in a textbook, I got this way because I stopped giving a shit.