What do you guys do when you meet someone who “used” to stutter?
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What do you guys do when you meet someone who “used” to stutter? I went through a local fast food chain yesterday and was ordering at the drive-thru. I had to place a large order for myself and a couple others and thought it would be the best way. I have been forcing myself to use the drive-thru more often to overcome my fear of talking to someone though a machine (speaker, phone, etc). Anyway about halfway though she asked me to pull up to finish my order, I thought I had been doing good with little stuttering at but guess not. I had to order a sugar cookie and always get stuck on S words. So I pull up and she reads back to me what she heard and I repeat the rest of the order. Once I get to the sugar cookie though I paused. There was no way to substitute the word as they had several cookies available, I couldn’t just say I wanted a cookie. So I took a deep breath and went full steam ahead with trying to get that S word out. The girl took pity on me despite being maybe 8 years my junior. Once I was able to finally say the word I just said I had a stutter (surprisingly without any issues on “stutter.” The girl went ahead and told me she used to stutter but was able to overcome it. How she used to be practically mute because of her stutter. She said she still stuttered sometimes even today. You guys are probably going to say I’m stupid or a jerk for saying this but I didn’t believe a word of it. The whole time she was talking to me about stuttering I was thinking how there is no way she has any idea what it’s like and I have not heard the slightest stutter or seen the tiniest hint of any signs of a stutter. I seriously hate when people talk down to me like I’m still a small child, especially when the person doing so IS the child compared to me. I’m a 24 y/o woman & wish people wouldn’t feel so compelled to act like the adult in the situation when I stutter. I’ve heard it all before. How stuttering could be the cause of a childhood trauma. How it could be genetic. How even it can be cured if you try hard enough in speech therapy early on. I’ve heard it all before and I don’t need someone reiterating it all to me like I have no idea. I’ve heard it all before, I don’t know if I believe in everything though. I’m sorry about this long post. I just seriously needed to vent. How do you guys handle the situation when someone fluent claims to have once stuttered or to be able to “understand?”