Is there any scientifically-backed evidence that speech therapy improves fluency or is it 100% anecdotal nonsense?
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Is there any scientifically-backed evidence that speech therapy improves fluency or is it 100% anecdotal nonsense? 13+ years of various speech therapy. I paid thousands to go to HCRI in Virginia and it didn’t do shit for me and they kept asking for more money for their ancient computer program. I’m a 23 year old man who can’t say his own name or complete a sentence. All of my communication is written. I’m on Baclofen to try to reduce the muscle spasms from stuttering and have been on Clonazepam for years for stuttering-related social anxiety. I hate being on meds and Clonazepam feels like it makes me retarded but it’s either that or being too afraid to interact with anyone. It seems like there’s tons of speech pathologists with books that they swear are the end all cure for stuttering and nothing ever fucking works. Is speech pathology pseudoscience? Are there ANY peer-reviewed studies with a decent sample size and methodology that show that ANY speech therapy helps with fluency? From my point of view it just seems like speech pathology is a bunch of scammers and hucksters who are taking advantage of people like me for profit. I get that they go to college for it but what the hell is that even based on? Anecdotal evidence? And then the National Stuttering Association will post a 60 second clip on social media of some successful business professional who claims to stutter talking about how hard it is and they’ll stutter maybe once or twice for half a second over a full minute of otherwise uninterrupted speech. It’s like I have a different disorder than all of these people. It feels insulting to me as someone with a real stutter. Seems like most people in my position commit suicide. I’ve got an associates degree; I got great grades in HS; I climb and ski mountains for fun; I work out very hard and eat very well; i have a girlfriend; but nothing will ever fill the hole of not being able to communicate with others. We’re social creatures and I’m not naturally introverted.