Marc007
03-23-2009, 05:48 PM
Hi there! My name is Marc and I am new to this forum. I am 40 years old and have stuttered since grade school. My stuttering is mild to severe depending on the situation, circumstances, day, month, etc. etc. I have read many of the posts and can certainly relate to ALL of your experiences, struggles, and thoughts.
In some respects I feel stuttering has held me back. I guess the biggest issue I have is that I am somewhat socially awkward. I mean I really hate big social functions where you have to meet new people in a social situation. The idea of going to a friend's wedding for instance, where I know just a few, would be a real pain in the ass. Whereas a family wedding where I know most everybody, would be fine and I'd have a good time, even if I'd have to meet a few people. But like going to neighborhood association meeting and stuff like that, forget it. No thanks. I defintely exhibit avoidance behaviours.
At the same time, life has been good. I have a wonderful wife, whom I am pretty fluent around and 2 awesome daughters. I am a lab scientist. I have to interact with doctors and nurses. Over the years I have become sucessfull with this. I use the phone without a lot fear (at work anyway LOL). I have played in a heavy metal band (guitar) for a few years which was great fun.
So, maybe I am not all that I could be. And this is frustrating to some extent. I work on my speech daily (more to come on that later!) and persevere at best I can. I have know joy as well, and I try not to let stuttering define who I am. I know a lot of you young people wish we had a world that was kind and always understanding of our struggles. No such world exists, but I have experienced kindness and patience many times.
I am so glad to have found this forum and find that I don't have to go at it alone all the time. One of the things we stutters do well is that we UNDERSTAND each other even without having met before.
Marc
In some respects I feel stuttering has held me back. I guess the biggest issue I have is that I am somewhat socially awkward. I mean I really hate big social functions where you have to meet new people in a social situation. The idea of going to a friend's wedding for instance, where I know just a few, would be a real pain in the ass. Whereas a family wedding where I know most everybody, would be fine and I'd have a good time, even if I'd have to meet a few people. But like going to neighborhood association meeting and stuff like that, forget it. No thanks. I defintely exhibit avoidance behaviours.
At the same time, life has been good. I have a wonderful wife, whom I am pretty fluent around and 2 awesome daughters. I am a lab scientist. I have to interact with doctors and nurses. Over the years I have become sucessfull with this. I use the phone without a lot fear (at work anyway LOL). I have played in a heavy metal band (guitar) for a few years which was great fun.
So, maybe I am not all that I could be. And this is frustrating to some extent. I work on my speech daily (more to come on that later!) and persevere at best I can. I have know joy as well, and I try not to let stuttering define who I am. I know a lot of you young people wish we had a world that was kind and always understanding of our struggles. No such world exists, but I have experienced kindness and patience many times.
I am so glad to have found this forum and find that I don't have to go at it alone all the time. One of the things we stutters do well is that we UNDERSTAND each other even without having met before.
Marc