commentr/StutterDecember 28, 2019

Content

Been there my friend. Your experience reminded me of one of the small silver linings that comes with living with a stutter. Like other visible handicaps, our stutter is an asshole exposer. In nearly 60 years on this planet, always a stutterer, I can probably count on two hands the times that someone has mocked my stutter. This means that 99.9999% of people let you get through it. Even though many are visibly uncomfortable, they may recoil a little bit, they may make a face, they give us the benefit of the doubt and let us get through it. I'm not counting the many people who finish our sentences. I think most of them are genuinely trying to be helpful and this is in no way like mocking. But once in a great while someone will mock us. I find that even these people are quickly educated and feel a little ashamed if we apologize and let them know that we have a stutter. So even these people don't fall into the asshole category. But there are people in our lives who know we stutter, and who mock us. These people are assholes. God has given us a foolproof asshole detection system. These people should be put outside the wall, excluded from polite society. And this is one of the small blessings of being a stutterer. You be you!

Themes

Identity & DisabilityCommunity & Support

Subthemes

Identity & Self-PerceptionStigma & BullyingValidation & Empathy