Huge lesson I learned a couple years ago when it comes to seeing progress in my speech.
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Huge lesson I learned a couple years ago when it comes to seeing progress in my speech. First thing to know, my type of stutter was on-and-off. But if your stutter doesn't fluctuate the same, this still applies 100% Sometimes I would go for months in a severe panic state, stuttering loads in every conversation. And then sometimes I would have almost completely fluent days that might last a week or 2. Then boom, the cycle would start again. It was extremely frustrating because I knew with all my heart, I could speak fluently. I was proving it to myself time and time again, but the damn mindset sometimes just wouldn't work in my favour and I’d start obsessing over words again. I don't know if there is anything more frustrating in this world than that feeling.. Especially when you don't know how to change it. That’s why I wanted to quickly share this one liner that has been stuck in my head for some time now. This next line is what this post is all about. “Your ability to handle inevitable bad days determines your success in overcoming stuttering” That’s really it. If every time you hit a “bad day” this causes you to spiral down in self pity/hate and you start to isolate yourself with video games, weed, alcohol, porn, youtube etc. You will never have the ability to see real progress. That's the cycle I would get stuck in. Learning to be aware of your triggers and noticing when you are holding more tension, then DOING THINGS THAT RELIEVE THE TENSION rather than doing things that store the tension (avoiding, isolating, distracting) your bad days won't last. Your bad days only last as long as you resist them. As long as you believe deep down somewhere that the fluent version of yourself is more lovable, and valuable, you will always want to resist stuttering. The moment I was able to handle my “bad days” I saw an insane amount of happiness/fulfillment in my life, as a result, stuttering was not this big bad monster, but just something that pops up sometimes. Bad days aren't bad. They are a time to make huge changes in your speech/mindset of speech. Take advantage of them.