The real cause of stuttering

The real cause of stuttering Hi, I'm new to the sub, I have stuttered since I was 3 or 4 years old, now I am 24 but in recent months I began changing view on this problem and I would like to share what I discovered. **The experience of stuttering** I became self conscious about my stutter when I was 12/13, at school, while I was reading a paragraph in front of everyone. I felt kinda bad and couldn't understand what was going on. Later years were difficult as you can imagine, I'll spare the stories, everyone has theirs and I'm not adding here. The important element at this stage is how I viewed my problem, essentially I sensed that it was something that I had, other people didn't and I had to struggle way more compared to others in order to get the same result. It was hell, it was basically a disability, something that God gives you and there's nothing you can do about it, accept it and live your miserable life. However something changed when I was in university; I found on the internet a psychologist named Antonio Bitetti, who also suffered from stuttering and recovered completely, who spoke about the real cause of the problem, and after self enquiry and observation I can agree with conviction that he was right. **The real cause of stuttering** The real cause of stuttering it's the presence of a psychological system of ideas and behaviours, that don't support a natural flow of emotions (especially anger), which is key to a relaxed flow of speech. The psychological system I'm writing about refers to unconsious ideas, beliefs, habits, projections, that are basically negative, irrational. The reason why I'm pretty sure this is the case it's because the stuttering person, when alone, doesen't stutter, or if it happens, it's very little. If it was organic (therefore something that you can't change, it's just there for the rest of your life, like being blind), it would happen always, alone or with other people. Some say that it's genetics because of differences in brain activity while speaking, however I would say that this is only correlation, not causation: people with arachnophobia will have different brain activity compared to the ones who don't have arachnophobia when seeing a spider, this doesen't mean that their brain is organically different from birth, maybe there's a predisposition but to exclude other factors just because of this correlation it's not right to me. As I said, we can all agree that the correct flow of emotions it’s necessary to speak with ease, without excessive effort. We can use an example relating to sports: if I’m playing soccer, and someone is passing the ball to me, I have to do something, I need to act in a second, and the quality of the decision and its execution depends on my unconscious beliefs and ideas: ·         Am I good at soccer? ·         Do my teammates appreciate my presence? ·         Can I make a mistake and still continue playing? ·         Does it come natural to me? ·         Am I like everyone else in the field? ·         Do I have a plan? ·         Do I want to win? ·         Am I having fun? If the answer of all the above is yes, than the probability of making a good decision and executing it smoothly is relatively high. But what if the answer is no? Then of course I will have anxiety, block, and stutter on the execution, while everyone doesen’t know what’s going on. I agree that a basic ability to kick the ball it’s necessary, but without a plan, without feeling accepted by the team, how can you play smoothly? Now, with speaking it’s the same thing, if I think negatively about every aspect of myself, and project it to the person I’m speaking to, energy can’t flow well, words will struggle to come out, especially when we give speech such importance. Therapy that only focuses on fluency can be good but what about the rest? Everyone can make their conclusions. The question still is, why some people have it but others don’t, or it’s way less? I  had a general answer to this question, I just thought that genetic and enviromental influences shape the cognitive map of the child, therefore distortions in the evolution of the psyche are bound to happen. **Childhood** Bitetti’s theory it’s that the child experienced events or situations that made him angry, but when the emotions were shown, he faced the negative consequences of it. He learns soon that this anger can’t be shown, because the relationship with its caregivers will be in danger, the consequence is a conflict within him. The child tries to hold the two things togheter through a stutter, which is like a cry for help, it shows to the parents but without saying it, the anger or the tension felt. This conflict becomes the heart of the personality, and makes the stutter happen, not only through speech, but also through decisions, or activities that don’t require to speak. According to him, several stutters present ambivalent personality, they have ambition, they want to reach goals for themselves and for the people near him (as if the enviroment encourages him to do so), but they also lack the means and the strength to do so, they don’t have a healthy sense of reality, it’s either black or white (parents often show low self esteem, high anxiety, or too much attention to the performance of the child). I found a quote of Antonio Bitetti and another one of Carl Jung that have a meaningful connection: “Stuttering is just an element of blockage in an evolutionary process that should be marked predominantly by underlying trust and a certain amount of inner well being to enjoy the relational life.” Antonio Bitetti in “Le balbuzie. Un problema relazionale.” “… hidden in the neurosis is a bit of still undeveloped personality, a precious fragment of the psyche lacking which a man is condemned to resignation, bitterness, and everything else that is hostile to life…” Carl Jung I want to share resources that gave me this new perspective about the problem: ·         “Le balbuzie. Un problema relazionale.” Antonio Bitetti (i read it in italian, there are also other books from him available in other languages) ·         “The real cause of stammering and its permanent cure: a treatise on psycho-analytical lines” Alfred Appelt (this one is analytical, but it’s amazing) ·         “Balbuzie. Un viaggio nell’inconscio” Anonymous (only in italian) ·         “Redefining Stuttering” John Harrison (amazing book on stuttering, incredible resource) ·         Everything written by Jung on neurosis. My stuttering has slightly improved, I feel more mature and I see a tough road ahead of me. However, seeing all the authors above (apart from Jung) dissolve their stutter (it took some years) and agree on this basic intuition, that stuttering it’s a symptom of an unreasonable view of reality and not an organic disease decided at birth, gives me confidence and insight that I had to share. I have other insights to share, hope to do it if someone is interested.