postr/StutterDecember 15, 2021

I am close to calling it quits on my dream, and I am in a desperate need of advice on how to stop stuttering severely in front of crowds.

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I am close to calling it quits on my dream, and I am in a desperate need of advice on how to stop stuttering severely in front of crowds. I am 16 years old. Having a stutter won't prevent you from getting a job, I know that. But what if that job's top qualifier, or at least of its top qualifiers is how well you can speak. My dream career is to be a flight attendant. I like traveling. I don't mind customer service, in fact, I sort of like it. Put 2 and 2 together. Boom, you get flight attendant. Problem. I stutter so bad when even reading in front of a crowd. This is a case where having a stutter, LITERALLY defines you. Flight attendant careers are highly sought after. Competition is really intense. Sounding not very confident when speaking, let alone a stutter, won't even get you past the first round. So just the sheer fact that I stutter in my voice will literally prevent me from getting my dream job. I decided to join a debate class in high school this semester, to "try and improve my speaking." Today, after 5 months in that class, we had to debate our cases in front of the class. The end result: me reading my case way over the time limit, and stuttering severely every 3 to 4 words, and losing even more faith in my dream. Sigh. I get that people like Steve Harvey and Joe Biden had a stutter. What I want to know is, how do I go from being THE LITERAL WORST PUBLIC SPEAKER to being good enough to quickly speak in front of passengers like a flight attendant would. Seriously. Improvement has been minuscule since elementary school. I am not the worst speaker one on one, or in groups. No where near good though. But crowds are my kryptonite. I guess I really like traveling in my life, I want to have a career involving that, no matter how naive it sounds. Even being something like an English teacher in Asia or Latin America requires that crowd element, which >this< guy is the worst at. I don't know, I just don't know. I know I sound like I'm raving here, I'm sorry if I sound rude. I just want to get this off of my chest, after that debate speech. Because I consistently stutter chronically in crowd speeches, which is any flight attendant applicant's worst nightmare. The worst part though, is that I am not seeing much improvement.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional ExperienceSchool & Work

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionAnxiety & Social JudgmentPublic Speaking