postr/StutterApril 3, 2024

My general thoughts

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Content

My general thoughts I'm 20 years old. I've stammered my entire life as far as I remember. It was pretty bad but got better over the years. After high school , I had around 2 months before joining college. My public speaking skills were pretty bad and I had a stutter(even though it had improved over the years, it was still there such that it would affect my performance in debates, competitions in the future). My mom forcefully put me in this public speaking class , where people who were shy, stuttered,etc.. were there. I had 3 classes a week for 2 months. Every class we would have some exercises in the beginning like speaking tongue twisters in front of everyone, deep breathing etc.. Finally everybody had to give a 5 min speech on a given topic in front of everyone and were given only 2-3 mins to prepare. Because of this my stutter has greatly reduced. I still do stutter in front of people , but now it's just down to few specific words/letters, like words starting with 's' or 'f' and few more. But I still can't say long jokes and stuff , one cheeky comment here or there im easily able to make which might make people laugh , but not more than that The worst part is , since I'm in college , many people ask me which school I attended, and my school's name has 2 words starting with 's' , which is a big problem for me. I just try to say the short form majority of the time , but when someone asks the full form , i panic and start stuttering. I think my stutter is mainly because of social anxiety because I can easily pronounce words without stuttering starting with 's' or 'f' or other few words when I'm talking to myself. And since I know I'll stutter on these words in public , this creates anxiety and I'm stuck in a vicious cycle. How do I get rid of my stutter in these specific words? Thank you!

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional ExperienceSchool & Work

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionAnxiety & Social JudgmentSchool & Academic Life