Tips to improve stuttering (a strategy to outgrow stuttering as an adult)

Tips to improve stuttering (a strategy to outgrow stuttering as an adult) **Introduction**: * Fluency occurs when we are fixated on "*choose articulating*" * Speech blocks occur when we are too fixated on hearing our stuttering, feeling strong emotions, feeling body sensations (that we associated to stuttering anticipation), overthinking, overreacting, doing unhelpful behaviors, negatively evaluating blocks/listeners responses, avoiding blocks etc, that distract us from instructing to move our speech muscles (resulting in paralysis of the tongue/jaw that then causes a speech block) This is my attempt to summarize a strategy to outgrow stuttering. In my opinion: **Strategy**: Step 1: Identification & Analysis phase * One of the goals of this strategy, is to always focus on the words "*choose articulating*" in your mind and notice/experience what happens if you do this. Write down everything that happens. For example, in my experience, I wrote down 150 pages of what happened like stuttering anticipation, strong emotions, unhelpful thinking patterns, reactions and strategies. Take a couple of months to write everything down to confirm to yourself how your stuttering works Step 2: * Only focus on the words "*choosing articulating*" in your mind - without focusing on hearing + seeing + feeling + thinking + reacting to a thought or feeling + doing strategies/coping mechanism. In other words, commit to doing nothing (except observing the 2 words) and not making choices * Firstly, while you are not speaking * Secondly, while you are speaking * Note: an important takeaway is that observing '*choose articulating*' should not (1) feel like an instruction, (2) feel convincing or (3) feel like we will speak fluently * Because deciding/instructing in itself doesn't have a feeling which makes '*waiting out articulating to scan for a comfortable confident fluency feeling*' redundant * Additionally, this will make '*waiting out articulating to firstly convince yourself that you can do it*' also redundant (which breaks the vicious cycle of stuttering) * Additionally, this will make '*waiting out articulating to firstly anticipate that you will speak fluently*' redundant * Lastly, one of the goals of this strategy is to associate the words '*choose articulating*' to the willful action of moving your speech muscles just like how you would willfully act to move your leg muscles when walking * Conclusion: the positive effect is that our unhelpful attitude to be reactive changes into being proactive, which means that we then learn to tolerate and not care anymore about the disturbance in the [feedback loop](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-negative-feedback-loop-for-perceptual-control_fig5_220107782) (explained in [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/110b1co/important_to_learn_about_stuttering_how_does_the/) post) * Is this clear or should I explain it better and rephrase it? Step 3: * Same as step 2, but now add one of the senses (like: hearing, seeing, feeling, thinking). For example, commit to observing "choose articulating" while hearing yourself speak. Normally this would trigger: feelings, overthinking, overreacting and unhelpful strategies/coping mechanisms. However, in step 3 this won't happen because you only commit to observing "*choose articulating*" + e.g., hearing. The positive effect of this step is, that it will clear your mind and get you out of the tunnelvision * Switch to one of the other senses Step 4: * Same as step 3, but now add two of the senses while observing "*choose articulating*". For example, observe "choose articulating" while hearing and feeling emotions, and no other choices * Switch to two of the other senses Step 5: * Every month, add 1 of the senses. For example, in the third month with this strategy you can finally speak with 3 senses. In the fourth month you can speak with 4 senses etc Step 6: * Same as step 5, but now add 'observing stuttering anticipation' ​ **This new strategy is a follow-up on** [**this**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/1116lis/tips_to_improve_stuttering_according_to_a_person/) **post. If you also have positive experiences with your personal strategies, share it in the comments! If you are interested in more tips to outgrow stuttering, check out these** [**posts**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/search/?q=Tips%20to%20improve%20stuttering&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) **here**