postr/StutterJune 23, 2020

Does Stuttering Improve When You're Happy or Excited?

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Content

Does Stuttering Improve When You're Happy or Excited? Hi! I'm new to this subreddit. My stutter is pretty minor/average and it first started in kindergarten but it went away for a while during elementary school. Now I am in high school and my stutter is back, but I'm working on it. The purpose of this post is to describe how positive stress helped to briefly reduce my stuttering, and I'm asking if anyone has experienced anything similar. Stress is known to aggravate stuttering, and it happens to me a lot, especially when I'm overwhelmed with school work. But there have been times when my stuttering improves while experiencing positive stress (eustress) instead of negative stress (distress). We experience positive stress just as often as negative stress. It most notably occurs during times of happiness, like a marriage, vacation, or getting a job, etc. In my experience during a vacation to visit friends and family in my home country, my fluency was a lot better overall, but still not perfect. I remember being fluent for almost an hour or more during a lunch with friends whom I haven't seen in a long time. I believe part of it was because I was excited to see them and experiencing positive stress. But when I returned from vacation, my stuttering was back to its normal state. Has anyone else experienced something similar to this? When one's stuttering is reduced during times of excitement or joy?

Themes

Causes & Variability

Subthemes

Stress & Fight/FlightPropositionality & WeightSeverity & Fluctuation

Codes (1)

emotional_state