sign543
01-10-2005, 08:13 PM
I have stuttered for longer than I can remember. I am 34-years-old now and am in law school and am also the director of corporate communications at the company for which I work. Thankfully, in this day and age, most communications with the outside world are through email…I can usually avoid making phone calls…though incoming calls don’t normally frighten me as much as making “cold” calls to people with whom I’ve never verbally communicated.
I was a chronic stutterer in my early childhood…and went through a number of years of speech therapy, none of which really made any noticeable difference. Speaking to metronomes really did nothing but make me fluent while in the session. Over the years, however, I’ve developed a number of “masking” techniques to hide my stutter…most of which work, although sometimes they fail miserably…or they simply don’t work in a given circumstance.
For example, I have a method of exhaling all of the air out of my diaphragm before speaking, save just enough air to say the number of words I need to…to the listener, my speech is perfectly normal. This method usually works pretty well, however, it does tire out my stomach muscles, as I am exerting a lot of pressure in the speaking process…additionally, it sometimes makes the nature of my speech very fast and high-octane. Sometimes people think I am either nervous or stressed. I do tend to speak very fast.
Of course, I use the traditional method of word switching…or feigning contemplation, pretending I cannot think of a specific word to use, when, in reality, I can, but am unable to articulate. That is extremely frustration…and I have always resisted the advice to simply “stutter”, as stuttering makes me feel badly about myself…and I also don’t like to see people become uncomfortable when I stutter…and I thoroughly loathe people trying to complete my sentences.
I am also a lover of comedy…and one of my dreams was to do stand-up comedy, which, of course, is literally impossible with my stutter. The timing must be right…which, of course, is a problem for stutterers…and the stress of giving a punchline when you are supposed to just exacerbates any speech stress I have already. Even telling a simple joke, at times, has been difficult. Giving the punchline can be very stressful.
I have contemplated some “intensive therapy” programs, though they are very expensive, and I wouldn’t want to fork out thousands of dollars to really see minimal progress. I also know a friend who was a chronic stutterer who went into a therapy program. He now speaks in very measured tones and recommends the program…but his speech is much to low-key for me…he almost speaks in a monotone constantly…and it’s almost as disconcerting as the stutter probably was.
At any rate…I’m glad to have joined here…and hopefully I’ll get to know some of you over the course of posting.
Tony
I was a chronic stutterer in my early childhood…and went through a number of years of speech therapy, none of which really made any noticeable difference. Speaking to metronomes really did nothing but make me fluent while in the session. Over the years, however, I’ve developed a number of “masking” techniques to hide my stutter…most of which work, although sometimes they fail miserably…or they simply don’t work in a given circumstance.
For example, I have a method of exhaling all of the air out of my diaphragm before speaking, save just enough air to say the number of words I need to…to the listener, my speech is perfectly normal. This method usually works pretty well, however, it does tire out my stomach muscles, as I am exerting a lot of pressure in the speaking process…additionally, it sometimes makes the nature of my speech very fast and high-octane. Sometimes people think I am either nervous or stressed. I do tend to speak very fast.
Of course, I use the traditional method of word switching…or feigning contemplation, pretending I cannot think of a specific word to use, when, in reality, I can, but am unable to articulate. That is extremely frustration…and I have always resisted the advice to simply “stutter”, as stuttering makes me feel badly about myself…and I also don’t like to see people become uncomfortable when I stutter…and I thoroughly loathe people trying to complete my sentences.
I am also a lover of comedy…and one of my dreams was to do stand-up comedy, which, of course, is literally impossible with my stutter. The timing must be right…which, of course, is a problem for stutterers…and the stress of giving a punchline when you are supposed to just exacerbates any speech stress I have already. Even telling a simple joke, at times, has been difficult. Giving the punchline can be very stressful.
I have contemplated some “intensive therapy” programs, though they are very expensive, and I wouldn’t want to fork out thousands of dollars to really see minimal progress. I also know a friend who was a chronic stutterer who went into a therapy program. He now speaks in very measured tones and recommends the program…but his speech is much to low-key for me…he almost speaks in a monotone constantly…and it’s almost as disconcerting as the stutter probably was.
At any rate…I’m glad to have joined here…and hopefully I’ll get to know some of you over the course of posting.
Tony