postr/Stutter_remissionApril 12, 2025

Do you sometimes catch yourself believing that a moment of fluency must be followed by more stuttering?

1 points0 commentsView on Reddit →

Content

Do you sometimes catch yourself believing that a moment of fluency must be followed by more stuttering? Here is what I mean. Do you catch yourself believing that fluency has to be followed by more stuttering? like, have you ever noticed a thought creeping in—like after a fluent moment, it’s somehow “time” to stutter again? In my own stuttering, for me, it’s not a clear, conscious thought saying “it’s time to stutter again” but more of a subtle, underlying belief that my subconscious seems to follow. It feels more like a concept—a quiet expectation—that it’s time to stutter. For example: many stutterers might carry a deep-seated belief that they’re supposed to stutter on certain sounds, especially at the beginning of words or phrases. And after some struggle to push through those moments, the subconscious kind of gives a silent nod—“okay, now it’s time” to speak more fluently again. If we think of this as a “distorted, long-held belief,” it might help explain why our fluency tends to fluctuate. It's the same as when I believe I should act like a non-stutterer (resulting in fluency), whereas acting (i.e., accepting) a stutter identity result in stuttering when I do it. So: **The real question is how to actually address these distorted beliefs.** Approaches like “not caring about stuttering” or desensitizing ourselves to stutter-related shame haven’t really helped resolve them in my own stuttering—in fact, they may have done the opposite (by strengthening my stutter identity)

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceIdentity & Disability

Subthemes

Overthinking & MonitoringAuthenticity vs. MaskingIdentity & Self-Perception