Hello from Croatia!

[Maya]

Hi everyone! My name is Maya. I come from Zagreb, Croatia. I found this forum on the internet searching some information about stuttering that might help me.
I'm 30 years old now and started to stutter approximately when I got into elementary school at the age of 5 - 6. Nobody thought it was a big problem so I didn't go to any kind of therapy untill secondary school and things got a bit complicated and therapy didn't help me much so here I am still stuttering. I had a lot of problems at University with my speaking and got really depressed about it. I work now as a pilates instructor which is a bit surprising but I never stutter when I explain the exercices to clients in a group or individual classes. It's somehow like playing a role and that role is stutter free :)
So sometimes I feel that I don't have any problem and deny my stuttering but then it of course does happen elsewhere. For example I have problem with shopping when I have to ask for something so I avoid these situations and find the stores where I can take everything form the shelves. Also with all kinds of institutions like hospitals, dentist or any type of bureaucracy where you have to come to an unknown person and start to talk. Those a quite terrible situations for me. And with some people that I don't know very well or something I affraid I could stutter so I get a bit nervous and avoid talking as much as possible.
My stuttering gets me really depressed and it destroys my self esteem and sense of self respect.
In some periods of my life I have experienced fluent speach in all these situations so I try hard to stay positive and believe that I will solve this and be able to speak freely.

that's all for now

good luck to everyone to become stutter free!

[Jim22]

Maya -

Welcome aboard.

You state you never stutter when you're instructing others. Congratulations.

Do you know why this happens? Are you more relaxed as an instructor? Do you have more self confidence as an instructor?

Can you transfer the feeling you have as an instructor to other things, like when shopping?

>> By the way, Maya, I note you have a great command of the English language.

Jim22

[Maya]

Hi Jim
thank you for your support
Well about my pilates teaching I would say that it is a different kind of speaking, I do feel more relaxed and confident, I never had a bad experience while teaching so that is a 'safe area' for me :) In a way I talk in a slight different voice and like I mentioned it's like playing a role. It's interesting what you said about using that kind of talk and feeling in another situations. I'll try that although I get nervous when I am in those different situations so it will be a challenge

[Standingtall]

Hello and welcome Maya, good to meet you and great to have you hear. Maybe you should play that role play more often in your everyday life. Looking forward in hearing from you.

[Jim22]

Hi Jim
thank you for your support
Well about my pilates teaching I would say that it is a different kind of speaking, I do feel more relaxed and confident, I never had a bad experience while teaching so that is a 'safe area' for me :) In a way I talk in a slight different voice and like I mentioned it's like playing a role. It's interesting what you said about using that kind of talk and feeling in another situations. I'll try that although I get nervous when I am in those different situations so it will be a challenge

Hi Maya -

In my opinion, overcoming stuttering was largely counterintuitive. The more I tired to avoid stuttering or force fluent speech, the worse my speech got. The trick was, which you have apparently found, to relax when speaking.

Keep us informed how it goes. I'm anxious to hear.

Jim

[Tinkabell]

Welcome to the forum Maya.

I get those days too. It's exhausting to stutter.

:)

[SKIP]

cao Maja
Ja sam iz BiH Zenica.
Volio bih stupiti u kontakt sa tobom.
Interesantno je ovo kod tebe da nemas problem tokop predavanja,ti sigurno nisi u naprednome stadiju mucanja ili si blizu do potpunom izljecenju

[Danny]

Welcome to the forum Maya! Fascinating that you don't stutter when instructing. Good for you! :)