Anybody heard of or tried this idea?

[Brian F]

:confused: A stuttering book I read said to " be desensitized to the reactions of those around you". How do you do this?

I tried that once as best I could and still ,as usual,tensed up before I tried to talk, stuttered and embarassed myself. Nothing changed.

Maybe this might work for those who have mild stutter. mine is close to severe. Anybody here try anyting like this or any other technique to relieve anxiety?
I've read here about Xanax or prozac but I think it would be wise to see if those are proven to work..I havn't heard one way or another if they do.
Im new here and it's good to hear what others say about stuttering.:

[Derek181]

um i think that means to self stutter... go out there and purposely block for like 30 seconds to a minute and just look them straight in the eye.... and do that a bunch of times to desensitize yourself

[andrewg818]

I recommend the book "WHAT YOU THINK OF ME IS NONE OF MY BUSINESS" and others like it...

[happy7117]

Stuttering on purpose to others??

That is sort of foolish. We stutter anyways.

Stuttering naturaly when we are around others is humiliating enough, but wanting to stutter to others would probably make them mad.

[Derek181]

ah i think self stuttering is somewhat useful.. it desensitizes you. i have a friend who has greatly improved his speech because he changed his attitude and did things like self stutter...

[Be YOURSELF]

[QUOTE=Brian F;20263]:confused: A stuttering book I read said to " be desensitized to the reactions of those around you". How do you do this?

I tried that once as best I could and still ,as usual,tensed up before I tried to talk, stuttered and embarassed myself. Nothing changed.

Maybe this might work for those who have mild stutter. mine is close to severe. Anybody here try anyting like this or any other technique to relieve anxiety?
I've read here about Xanax or prozac but I think it would be wise to see if those are proven to work..I havn't heard one way or another if they do.
Im new here and it's good to hear what others say about stuttering.:[/QUOT

This is actually a good technique. it tries to change your perception of the stutter. if you ask the forum members whats their perception of their stutter, there will be a long list of negative points. desensitizing reduces your negative emotion element of stuttering, thus stutter becomes less of a problem to you, and you get the the chance to work on your speech without the excess luggage of negative emotions and thoughts.

[Adrian]

This is actually a good technique. it tries to change your perception of the stutter. if you ask the forum members whats their perception of their stutter, there will be a long list of negative points. desensitizing reduces your negative emotion element of stuttering, thus stutter becomes less of a problem to you, and you get the the chance to work on your speech without the excess luggage of negative emotions and thoughts.

Moreover, voluntary stuttering turns stuttering on it's head and can be very empowering. Instead of the stuttering controlling you, you are controlling the stuttering. I believe desensitization is the key to everything. Physical techniques are fine, but are only a means to desensitize yourself. Most people here would agree their stuttering becomes worse with certain external stimuli. It would make sense if we voluntarily stutter severely enough and long enough to numb ourselves to this stimuli that we would then become more fluent.

[andrewg818]

Voluntary stuttering helped me get through a fear of asking questions in stores...Well, at first, I was so scared to do it-that I coerced my wife to pretend to stutter and ask clerks questions in front of me...while I watched thier reactions.. I came to realize that facial expressions I would've THOUGHT were LOATHSOME if they were directed towards me--were nothing more than simple, indifferent reactions when they were directed towards my wife-- When I felt comfortable enough, I began to do the voluntary stuttering.. Eventually, I realized-- I could just know that I was OK w/ stuttering and I was OK w/ fluency--and then I didn't need to actually act out the voluntary stuttering.. I came to realize --that stutterers take the TOPIC too seriously...If I asked you to go into a store and pretend to lisp..or to have a fake French accent..you probably wouldn't feel NEARLY as weird..maybe not even weird at all--- as if I told you to go in and pretend to STUTTER..
What I found interesting--is when I asked my wife..or any fluent person--- their emotional attahcment was the SAME to ANY topic-- Whether they were going to pretend to be foreign, lispy, cerebral palsyish, or stutterish... there level of resistance [or lack thereof] was IDENTICAL--- No special emotion nor concenr was given to stuttering-- When I realized fully..and KNEW that was all in my HEAD-- that fear..or most of that particular fear went away..
-- I learned in more time and w/ more experimentation--that the benefits of stuttering on purpose-- varied from situation to situation.. Asking questions in stores--- was one where it worked--because I was closet stuttering there.. I was trying so hard NOT to stutter...that going the other way helped tremendously.. I realized that by asking questions, I wasn't really overcoming a fear..if the fear was of STUTTERING--then no matter how fluent I was--- I needed to experience STUTTERING in order to overcome a fear OF stuttering.. THAT* was a closeted situation, so I came out of the closet..
---[more]
In other situations where I was NOT closeted, voluntary stuttering was NOT as effective.. Why? Because I realized that during that moment of intense struggle to produce a word...it was the loss of control that charged my emotions..the fear..the panic..the worry.... That was not there if I stuttered on purpose.. Voluntary stuttering--really put me in CONTROL -- IT wasn't as REAL though-- it became so EASY--that it was stuttering overtly..on purpose yet--but in situations where I was doign that ANYWAY--- voluntary stuttering wasn't recreating the true EMOTION the true feeling of panic and struggle to GET A WORD OUT.. See what I mean? So it was voluntary stuttering--but it wasn't REAL...I was still in control--and it was lack of control that I feared.. So in THOSE situatiosn, different measures were affected.
Indeed, the journey to fluency was a long process of experimentation, ups, downs, trials, and tribulations.

[Brian F]

I think we're our own worst enemy. We're conditioned to be humiliated when we talk. I'm sure most of the time others don't care that we stutter. Their stares would probably be the same if we talked a foreign language or were way tall or short or whatever. It's because it's different not necessarily bad to others.

Our,or my, emotions are out of order. I'm embarassed when shouldn't be. Also, had one painful episode recently in a fast food restaurant where the kids behind the counter mocked my speech after I placed an order. Why I was shamed and not angry, I don't know. It probably prevented me from doing what I should have.

I don't have any answers but I guess recognizing all this is better than nothing.

[nate]

Voluntary stuttering helped me get through a fear of asking questions in stores...Well, at first, I was so scared to do it-that I coerced my wife to pretend to stutter and ask clerks questions in front of me...while I watched thier reactions.. I came to realize that facial expressions I would've THOUGHT were LOATHSOME if they were directed towards me--were nothing more than simple, indifferent reactions when they were directed towards my wife-- When I felt comfortable enough, I began to do the voluntary stuttering..

Bloody good idea. I'm going to try this with my friend since my GF is in another country. But I think you may be onto something. I almost never stutter with my Girlfriend even though she is my greatest critic (and supporter) and I think its because I have totally desensitized myself to her comments (and facial expressions):D

Nate

[andrewg818]

I was always the same w./ my girlfriends..A good freind of mine who also overcame stuttering always remarks "that's how you know what part of your body your vocal cords R connected to ; ) "

[jankren]

Im a very self conscious person. Just one person jokes about my speech once I could lose my desire to speak for days and sometimes a couple weeks.

[Jeff99]

Stuttering on purpose to others??

That is sort of foolish. We stutter anyways.

Stuttering naturaly when we are around others is humiliating enough, but wanting to stutter to others would probably make them mad.

thats the whole point of the thing to look at reactions. do the thing you fear most "stuttering"
it's a great tool when used with the right train of thought.

you control the stutter you can stop stuttering on purpose anytime.it's a great tool to reduce fear of stuttering. why would you fear something your doing on purpose????
now i'm not talking about going up to someone an just stuttering non stop til they walk away altho i have done that in the past on purspose. just when you feel like your about to stutter then stutter on purpose you being in control of the stutter

[Daniel]

I don't think i could do that, i mean I've spent my whole life perfecting ways to hid it and been fairly successful. However nice it would be to just say what i wanted to say i just couldn't go down that path. I admire people whom are able to just let it all hang out.