commentr/StutterMay 6, 2023

Content

A big part of stuttering is the psychological fear of stuttering. We became stressed that we're about to stutter in social interactions and that stress causes us to stutter. Saying your name while meeting someone new is a stressful situation made more stressful with a fear of stuttering. It doesn't matter what your name is you'll still have that fear and stress. Two things can help here: fully and truly accept that you have a stutter and fully accept that stuttering is ok and that you are a perfectly normal person who just happens to also stutter. If someone has a problem with how you talk, it's their problem, not yours. The second thing is to tell people when you first meet them that you have a stutter. This immediately reduces your stress as there's less psychological fear of making that first stutter in new social engagements. These two things will make it easier no matter what your name is. For things like ordering a coffee and stuff like that, just use a nickname that you can change around as you think up new ones. But it would suck to go through the hassle of changing your name only to begin stuttering on your new name...

Themes

Identity & DisabilitySocial & RelationshipsEmotional Experience

Subthemes

Acceptance & PrideDisclosure & Telling OthersAnxiety & Social Judgment