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Mini-vent and Plea for Help! Hi y'all. I'm a 17-year-old male and I suffer from a stutter. I've had one for as long as I can remember. Now, I don't think my stutter is as bad as others, not even close, but it still does cause me significant stress and slow communication down. I feel like such a fool sometimes. As for what caused it - I didn't really know. But now, I'm thinking it was from my childhood. From birth, I've dealt with heavy physical and mental abuse and had to move around.... from city to city, from guardian to guardian. At 14, I finally moved back in with my mom and I haven't had to deal with any abuse since; however, the damage is done. I am 99% sure this is that cause of my stuttering - my abuse. Another produce of it is extreme social anxiety. Both of these play into my stutter. It really sucks, because I have lots of aspirations - I want to be a military officer, do politics, public speaking, etc. They ALL absolutely require fluent communication. My mind, intellect, and dreams feel locked behind my tongue and lips. I often feel deeply of despair. However, I am trying my best to not let it consume me. I try to do things that make me uncomfortable - just the other day, I made a professional phone call without stuttering. I took public speaking classes a few months ago and got an A. But with each major victory, I feel as though the minor defeats come ten-fold. I have come a long way with my stuttering, but I am genuinely fed-up with it. Please, offer ANY advice, tips, tricks, etc., to help me the vestiges of my stutter, once and for all. I do not believe there is anything PHYSICALLY wrong with me, as I speak just fine when I'm alone. Even with company, if im enjoying myself and forget about my stutter, I just don't. I truly believe it is the product of social anxiety and childhood trauma (and yes, I have had therapy \[although a long time ago as a kid\]). Thank you. Edit: some more info about my stutter... I don't stutter in the traditional sense (m-m-my n-n-ame is....). Instead, I often "block." Maybe I'm saying "the fox is fickle." I say everything fine, until "fickle" where I just can't make any sound. It feels like my tongue gets all tense and turns to stone. I literally cannot make a sound. THAT is the extent of my stutter, except I never know what word will block. My current methods of dealing with it are sound out words slowly (like saying "slowly" as "suh-low-lee"), speaking slow, using alternatives to trigger words (this has made me learn an extensive vocabulary LOL), and restarting sentences. I most often block on plosives though (can't start words starting with a d, p, k, c, etc). Think of: **D**oubt **D**uty Also, on words starting with vowels, such as apple (I get stuck on the "a"). While those are the main areas, like I said, it is often random.