I'm doing a Radio interview and I have a stutter.
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I'm doing a Radio interview and I have a stutter. On Wednesday I am being interviewed by a large radio station (50,000+ listeners) to talk about a film I created and a novel that I have coming out next month. A few years ago I would've never dreamed of doing something like this. I used to get panic attacks just standing at the front of class trying to give a presentation. In 2021 I was severely depressed because of it and ended up getting hospitalized. Since then I have been working on ways to accept my condition and improve upon it as best as I can. Some things that have helped; singing, listening to music, writing, reading poetry out loud in front of a mirror, breathing before speaking and speaking very slowly (focusing on the sounds of the mouth). But the thing that helped the most was acceptance. Accepting I'm not perfect, accepting that my stutter might slip out at times, accepting that I will slip up. I'm not going to turn this into a motivational speech but I hope it inspires or helps someone. I wish someone would have told me this in 2021. And yes, I still have my stutter (mainly blocks) and it is often triggered in high-anxiety situations like this. I am also still working on saying my name as I block on it 99 per cent of the time. I struggle to say "thank you" when I get off a bus, I struggle to order food, I even struggle to say my name. My stutter can try and take those things away but it won't take my determination to try.