Physical sensations while stuttering

[Silent]

I feel heat in my head which spreads to the rest of my body.
Sometimes I feel pain in my lower spine that stays for hours.
When I try to break out of a block badly, my body shakes and stiffens up, which leaves me very tired and stressed.

In general, I get very hot while speaking, even when I practice by myself and don't block, so I end up taking off almost all my clothes ;)

But the strangest phenomenon occurs when I talk a lot (doesn't happen often now but used to while I was still fluent after therapy). My hands are slowly taken over by an energy that feels like electricity inside (bones, flesh), and numbness on the outside (skin), and it spreads to my arms and to the rest of my body. I lose control of the parts of my body possessed by that energy. My fingers twist and cross with one another in the weirdest of ways and I can't straighten them - they get back to their bizarre configuration when released.
I try and stop it from spreading early on by shaking my hands and taking a break from speaking.
I believe, however, this energy is an important part of the puzzle my stutter is, and it would be a good idea to allow it to do its job instead of fighting it.

[nate]

wow...that is bizzare!
I sometimes (rarely) do get a little shaky...but thats entirely nerves. and i do get a bit hot eared too...but thats embarrassment.
Nate

[DKoz]

wow...that is bizzare!
I sometimes (rarely) do get a little shaky...but thats entirely nerves. and i do get a bit hot eared too...but thats embarrassment.
Nate

That's exactly what happens to me! It's a sign that your blood pressure is going up and we all know stuttering can do that...

[JDRow]

I'll feel heat in my neck and my ears, which is probably partly tension and partly anxiety/embarrassment. My chest and throat and sometimes mouth will feel very tight. If I'm really having a bad block I'll get a choking feeling.

[Silent]

Speaking of shaky...

I remember a class in 5th grade where I was giving a presentation and although I spoke quite fluently (better than anticipated), I shook so intensely that the other kids laughed at me, not at my speech but at the shaking, and some joked that I was having a seizure.

Another intense time was in high school in a religion class. I blocked and the priest asked me why I was so shaky and whether I was on psychotropic drugs. Since I couldn't answer, he reported to the principal that "I was on drugs". When he came back, he apologized for the misunderstanding.

[emily445455]

I just feel stuck...like I can't move foward until the stutter is resolved.

[Jamus]

- I get shortness of breath a lot b/c i tend to speak at the end of my breath a lot. As a result my chest tightens up and my whole breath is caught up in the vasalva meneuver when blocking... trying to push sounds/air through my block. I get to the end of my breath a lot when i block or stumble and don't start over but continue to push and force til i'm at the end and then i usually get it out. Cause and effect. I struggle = getting it out (reward). Which in turn, causes what i've typed below.

- I become flushed and start sweating when i am struggling. Part embarrassment, part stress.

[grantM]

My face contorts a lot so I sometimes get cramps and facial pain after a long session. Also depending on the block I may feel faint due to lack of oxygen flow. Funny thing is if I am teaching and I block bad while writing on the board my hand will keep writing the words although I am blocked on one and may not even be looking that way!

[Brian F]

Sometimes my face turns red which makes me more embarrased. It's unpredictable. also, i try to control my rapid blinking but i feel like i have to open my eyes wider which makes me look bug eyed.

My other problem is face contortions. i'll my head or my jaw makes movements out of sync with what i'm trying to say.
i can understand blushing or burning ears being related to stress but i'm puzzled by facial movments. Is that also stress? or nuerological.

i was hoping that trying to keep physical control might help my bad stutter a little but no.

[needausername]

I get real tense when I stutter. It feels like my whole body tenses up.
Sometimes I run out of breath.
I often feel like I'm choking when I have a real bad block.
I often jerk my head when I have a real bad block.

[chris2112]

I get tense too, especialy in my stomach, chest, jaw, and mouth. I dont feel heat but when Im stuttering alot I feel like my hearts in my chest and Im breathing from my upper chest instead of my stomach, nervousness I think.

[Violet]

My throat constricts which hurts alot after a while..

and occasionally, (mostly when i am randomly called to stand in front of my class and talk by my religion teacher, whom i hate) i shake uncontrollably, which really doesnt help the stutter seeing as i'm shaking. I think the shaking is a strange mixture of fear, coldness (cause the temperature always seems to drop a couple degrees when i am scared and being forced to speak) and the fact that my voice is shaking as well which seems to make me shake, or at least emphasise it ahhaa if that makes any sense :p

like i don't shake in regular conversation or anything, its just when i'm really scared, i.e. having to talk out loud to a class in which at least half of the people are 90% of the group of people in my year who would give me hell (and the only reason, i feel, that i am not bullied is because through out my schooling i have managed to remain at a nice comfortable distance from them) and my religion teacher always seems to call on me to talk at the worst times.. like sometimes midblock so i cant even say anything at all, cause the spontantety of being called upon makes my block so big that i litterally cannot talk... let alone breath.. which makes me shake and really cold hahah.

But in all my other classes and most other situations i'm fine talking/stuttering, well at least i react better than how i react in my religion class. I think its God trying to tell me something... probably that all those people are in cohorts with the devil :p

[Count]

...in my religion class.

My suggestion: Drop your religion class!

[Violet]

My suggestion: Drop your religion class!

oh i wish it was that easy.. i can't cause it's compulsory *shakes fist angrily at school*

[DanMad44]

i feel like i'm underwater. white noise blocks out all incoming sounds and the world stops for a moment when i have a block. it can be very tiring.

[Violet]

i feel like i'm underwater. white noise blocks out all incoming sounds and the world stops for a moment when i have a block. it can be very tiring.

Now that i think about it, i kinda feel like that too.. like all my senses are dimmed and i cant think properly.. almost as if i am underwater.. :confused:

[chris2112]

Now that i think about it, i kinda feel like that too.. like all my senses are dimmed and i cant think properly.. almost as if i am underwater.. :confused:

Yeah I kinda feel like this too, like when I block Im completely distracted from everything around me. Like when Im playing a video game and I try to talk with a friend and I block I usually end up dying in the game because I wasnt paying attention lol. If Im driving though, I really make it a point to focus on the road and my speech calmly when I block, and I usually get out of the block easier for some reason. I think trying to get out of your block in a calm and focused manner instead of so desperatly trying to get out of it, which usually happens, actually helps you get out of it.