Content
Do people assume you are “slow”? Just found this sub a few minutes ago. Wow. I’ve been reading and it feels good to find a group of other people who stutter. I’ve only met one other person who I could tell had an actual stutter and I only met her for just a few minutes I’m a guy, 29 who stutters pretty bad. Some days I would give it a solid 8 some days it can be a 4. I went to speech therapy for 13 years which I assume helped drastically. I love my SLP she was a light in a dark world of bullying and teasing growing up. I’ve never shared how stuttering has affected me with anyone and I’ve always felt so alone in this struggle. Growing up they always told me that I would grow out of it and I hoped and longed for that day. Every single day waking up, for years my first thought would be, “today’s the day I might stop stuttering.” But that day never came. As an adult new people or the general public assume I’m slow or have a learning handicap. That hurts the most. I’m of normal intelligence. Actually smarter than a lot of my peers prove to be. (Not to sound uppity) Over the years my stutter has changed and morphed in ways that I can’t explain. LOUD prolonged beginnings, silent blocks, repetitions, combos of all of them and every thing in between. Many adults in my life swore to have the answer for my problem. That it was a learned behavior which I don’t believe or understand the thinking behind, that I was nervous, or needed to calm down. But yet it goes on. And still I hope that it ends. I had a speecheasy when I was 18 and it helped tremendously. A friends dog snatched it up in a flash when I set it on my leg to adjust one day shortly after I got it. At 29 my line of “work” requires a lot of speaking with reading aloud. Some times I do great (for me) mostly it’s absolutely terrible. I’m at my wits end literally. I thought being a kid who stuttered was hard. Being an adult is so much worse.