Oldwolf==Brad

[Oldwolf]

Hi – My name is Brad and I started stuttering when I was 5 years old. I am 48 now. I have a wonderful wife of 23 years and two children, 20 and 17.

For a long time now, I just have just accepted my stuttering and have learned to live with it. The last real speech therapy I have had was back in high school. Lately my wife has been asking me to look into therapy again because maybe the science behind it has changed in the last 25 years. That made sense to me and that is how I found this forum.

Neither of my children stutter, thank God, and no one in my family does either. My mother was adopted, and since we don’t know much about her biological father, I can’t really know if he did or not.

I have tried all sorts of therapy.
Speech therapy, hypnotherapy, very early ADF with a tape recorder (primitive!), metronome therapy (cadence), breathing therapy, and drug therapy. I probably have missed some.

None have been permanent fixes and some work better than others do for me. I can discuss each one separately and will do that later in the forums. In a way, I incorporate all of them know in my daily life.

I recently got hold of a VHS tape from FLUENCY MASTER, which make an ear mounted gadget that is advertised to help something like 85% of the people who use it. The four or so people in the film definitely were helped, but I do realize the tape I was watching was an advertit after all.

Are any of you familiar with it?

There is also another ear mounted device that is made by Eastern Carolina University in North Carolina that apparently has had some success too. I may talk to them just out of curiosity, as I live in North Carolina, and not to far from them.

It is hard for me to formulate in my mind how to describe the severity of my speech to you. When you have been doing it for as long as I have it becomes YOU and you know no other way. Many times, I am 95% fluent but other times I am 10% fluent. It definitely has to do with the stress I am feeling at the time. One of the advantages of age is that you realize that there are not as many things to be worried (stressed) about than you though at an earlier age. My type of dis-fluency is hesitation, I don’t really repeat sounds when I speak, I generally just have hard blocks and many times soft blocks. Speaking of stress, during the last few weeks, I have cut waaaay back on the amount of caffeine I consume. I am not fluent or any thing like that now (haha-I wish), but I must say that the little anxious butterflies that I would have in my stomach for no apparent reason have seemed to flown away. At the very least, some of you heavy caffeine consumers, like I was, may benefit from a short 2 week experiment with this.

Can any of you tell me the exact event or place you were in when you first started to stutter? I can. It had to do with flipping over in a canoe when I was 5 years old. I can’t be sure the event is what started my speech impediment, but that is when my parents first noticed it.

Well, I’ll quit rambling for now. I look forward to exchanging ideas and comments with you guys in this forum. If you have any questions just ask.

Bye and take care!

[Gary1450]

Brad -

Do you have any advice for those of us who struggle on the phone?

[Oldwolf]

Placing telephone calls. This is difficult to put into words.

In my mind there are three types of telephone conversations. Each one is a different type of interpersonal communication.

1) Purchasing, ordering things (Ordering pizza, parts, etc.)

2) Information exchange (Asking the bank for service, scheduling an appointment with a doctor, etc..)

3) Being in a position of judgement (job interview, filing a complaint, etc..)

Which one do you find the most difficult? I have placed them in order of difficulty FOR ME, from easiest to hardest.

My first rule, if I am having problems, is to tell the person I stutter. Most people are VERY understanding and this helps lower my anxiety level a lot.

Do you tell people this or do you not?

[Gary1450]

I have told people on the phone that "I have trouble getting my words out sometimes" because usually I'm stuttering so bad that I can't say the word "stutter."

Great, isn't it?

Anyway, I work at a college where I have to talk to students. It's also by email too but mostly phone.

Thanks for the reply Brad. Take Care.

[Oldwolf]

Gary,

I work at a college too.

I remember one of my therapy exercises was to read aloud to myself for 10-15 minutes a day. The idea was to get used to hearing and feeling my speech fluent, kind of a confidence builder. It feels weird at first, reading aloud in an empty room, but after a while you get used to the idea and you may find yourself reading pages and pages with very few problems. It’s pretty neat actually, hearing yourself being fluent, and can build confidence.

Brad