Stuttering, Bipolar 1 Mania, and me. Personal theory.
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Stuttering, Bipolar 1 Mania, and me. Personal theory. Hey there. I will try to make this concise. But it won't work lol. I, 29M, have had a stutter since I could speak. Pretty typical moderate stutterer experience. I won't go into how that has affected me over the decades, but we shall say that it VERY GRADUALLY became less pronounced as I aged into adulthood and beyond. I sometimes reflect and think about my fluency today, and think how 7 year old Dub couldn't. Even. Comprehend. That this is possible. For context, I'd say from 23 and onward, it has been extremely mild. Still there. And yes I will have bad days, but I am slowly becoming more confident as being a public voice, an individual that is confidently heard, and my heart no longer drops into my pelvis when I hear I have to do an introduction or read anything out loud. I don't know how to express the feeling, really. BUT, my main point. In summer ish of 2018, I had my first EXTREME manic bipolar disorder, and got the diagnosis pretty much immediately afterwards. Since 2018, I have cycled up and down, to varying degrees, multiple times. I say I've had 2 INSANE like psychotic break with reality mania episodes, maybe 2 moderate manic episodes, where I'm still grounded to this planet, lol, but would behave erratically at times or just have INFINITE energy at my disposal. The rest were hypomanic(lesser) episodes, and filling in the holes with depression, or sometimes relative stability. One thing that helps characterize mania is rapid, RACING thoughts and for me, speech. When I am manic, I mean truly manic, I could just rattle off what felt like 1000 words per minute, with ZERO stutters or blocks. The real interesting part was this... I had a speech therapist, who I was working with on and off, and she lead a group therapy as well. In 2018, during my first time experiencing the most severe mania, she and I went to dinner at a restaurant. I think I spoke, non stop, for over an hour, about whatever it was, and she basically said something like: "Hey. You need to eat. You need to get some rest. But I can't help but notice you haven't stuttered a single time during this discussion." And she had a big history with me, she knew how insanely rare that was... Beyond here is my personal "what if" theory.... Don't take this and run with it, cause I don't even know if this is a cause - effect scenario. Stuttering is a neurological condition, to my knowledge. I can remember it as a memory and feeling burned into my soul, what those extreme manic sensations were, when they happened. Best way I could describe it is that my brain was just redlining the RPM gauge lol. Unlimited energy. Inability to be still, or sleep. Thoughts coming 10,000x quicker than I could ever speak, write, or express. It felt like every. Single. Part. Of my brain was just hooked up to a nuclear reactor and just FLOODING my head with power. I know neuroplasticity or whatever is a thing; brains change over time for a million different reasons... What if my manic episodes, repeated over many years, helped "re wire" my brain, in the way it was deficient before. Just a thought.