The time I "stopped" stuttering because a ball hit my jaw
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The time I "stopped" stuttering because a ball hit my jaw I've had a stutter since I can remember, although my parents say I developed it when I was a 5-6 yo. It's not very extreme, but it's still bad enough that I got picked on for it throughout HS. Anyway, I've had certain phases in my life where I completely stopped stuttering, and these have really helped me feel confident that with enough work I will be able to overcome it (I'm in my early 20s). The one incident I'm going to recount is from when I was 11, it was the first time I actively felt in control of my stutter and is a pretty funny incident when looking back. We were playing football (soccer) in school and the ball hit me square on my jaw. A bit after that, one of my friends suddenly "noticed" that I had stopped stuttering, and said it was because of the ball that hit me. In reality I knew it was just because I don't always stutter and so they mistook a small spell with no stutters as a permanent cure caused by the impact. All my other friends and classmates were amazed and kept trying to talk to me to see if I would stutter - but I didn't, because I thought it was a fun little game and I enjoyed their reactions and attempts. I carried this on, and went the next couple days without a stutter - it was pretty interesting. Each time I felt a stutter coming on, I'd just remind myself I had "stopped", so I'd slow down (maybe take a breath) and not stutter. Eventually however I got tired keeping this up, and eventually the stutter "returned", and my friends just thought it was because the effect of the impact had worn off - yeah i mean we were 11 so clearly not the brightest bunch. This incident really made me pretty ok with myself for stuttering, like I knew it was ultimately in my control, and this is probably one of the reasons I don't feel much of the anxiety some of you talk about going into interviews and stuff - like I know that if I try a little harder I won't stutter. I just don't have the energy to keep it up throughout the day.