commentr/StutterDecember 14, 2020

Content

This is very cool. There are a lot of bigger issues than stuttering, but what has always frustrated me is that nobody knows you stutter until you do it. It catches them off guard, and I think is responsible for some of the problematic reactions we stutterers receive from others. When I took speech therapy as a teenager, the recommendation was, when you meet someone, tell them right up front that you stutter. "Hi, My name is Fred, and I stutter." I never quite liked doing that, but ever since I have, as soon as I stutter in a conversation, explain that I'm a stutterer. This happens most often on a phone call. If I'm reading a credit card number, for example, I can seldom get through the full number. But when I block I can almost always say, "Please be patient while I get through this, I have a stutter.". Of course it always amuses me that I can say that, but I can't say "5". I've always found, with very few exceptions, that people respond very differently and far more favorably if you own the stutter that way. It no longer becomes this thing where they have to pretend they don't notice it, it's out in the open.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceSocial & RelationshipsCommunity & Support

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionDisclosure & Telling OthersValidation & Empathy

Codes (2)

ordering_service_encountertelephone_video