Why do we have word fears?

[bluesboy95]

This just came up in my mind, why do are we fluent on some words but stutter on others?

Like for example, today at school. We were practicing the pronunciation of German words. I was completely fluent on all the words, except on the ones that begin with 'gr'. (grillen, gratis etc.), although I was fluent on words that begin with 'g' (gut), 'r' (Reise), or words that have 'r' as the second letter (traurig etc.).

If stuttering is only a psychological problem, why is DAF/FAF so effective?
If it is a neurological problem, why do we only stutter on a few words and not every word we say?

In my opinion, it might be a combination of both of these.

Can anyone give their thoughts?

[ClinPsy]

Stuttering is neurological. Though, stuttering is also a learned response. Perhaps we stutter on some words more than others because we have learned to fear a particular word or sound. For example, lets say someone made fun of you while you were the word "bat." Thus, every time you are about to say the word "bat" you might get filled with anxiety. The anxiety will lead to more stuttering. Therefore, you associate anxiety with any word that starts with "B"; thus, you will stutter more on that word.

[Thecoherentman]

Stuttering is neither psychological nor neurological. It starts from a healthy dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness. The problem happens later when other people interfere and child is hopeless in meeting expectations of people according to the way child sees these expectations. It always take two or more to stutter. Stuttering continues because for short-term-gain of resolving the non-harmonious expectations and conflict between conscious and non-conscious, mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces.
Why does it keep changing from day to another day, from role to another role, from a sensitive word to another sensitive word? Because there is a balancing process in action. More disassociation brings need for more association. stuttering in one occasion bring relief in a few seconds later. Stuttering with one person makes you instantly more fluent with another person. Stuttering on one sound makes saying other sounds easier.

[Geoff]

It doesn't make sense. I've tried to fathom my stutter for years and I'm still not coming any closer to understanding it. It follows no logic at all I swear, haha...

[purpleocean]

Stuttering is neither psychological nor neurological. It starts from a healthy dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness. The problem happens later when other people interfere and child is hopeless in meeting expectations of people according to the way child sees these expectations. It always take two or more to stutter. Stuttering continues because for short-term-gain of resolving the non-harmonious expectations and conflict between conscious and non-conscious, mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces.
Why does it keep changing from day to another day, from role to another role, from a sensitive word to another sensitive word? Because there is a balancing process in action. More disassociation brings need for more association. stuttering in one occasion bring relief in a few seconds later. Stuttering with one person makes you instantly more fluent with another person. Stuttering on one sound makes saying other sounds easier.
AH my first post but i can already tell im gonna like this forum that is a very interesting way to look at it

[Jaykon]

Stuttering is neither psychological nor neurological. It starts from a healthy dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness. The problem happens later when other people interfere and child is hopeless in meeting expectations of people according to the way child sees these expectations. It always take two or more to stutter. Stuttering continues because for short-term-gain of resolving the non-harmonious expectations and conflict between conscious and non-conscious, mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces.
Why does it keep changing from day to another day, from role to another role, from a sensitive word to another sensitive word? Because there is a balancing process in action. More disassociation brings need for more association. stuttering in one occasion bring relief in a few seconds later. Stuttering with one person makes you instantly more fluent with another person. Stuttering on one sound makes saying other sounds easier.



i think your throwing out a lot of psycho-jargon. talk to us in a language we can understand coherentdude

[JFan]

Stuttering is neither psychological nor neurological. It starts from a healthy dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness. The problem happens later when other people interfere and child is hopeless in meeting expectations of people according to the way child sees these expectations. It always take two or more to stutter. Stuttering continues because for short-term-gain of resolving the non-harmonious expectations and conflict between conscious and non-conscious, mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces.
Why does it keep changing from day to another day, from role to another role, from a sensitive word to another sensitive word? Because there is a balancing process in action. More disassociation brings need for more association. stuttering in one occasion bring relief in a few seconds later. Stuttering with one person makes you instantly more fluent with another person. Stuttering on one sound makes saying other sounds easier.

I totally disagree. If stuttering is not neurological than why does dopamine altering drugs have "success" with the amount of fluent speech one says.....

[ClinPsy]

Stuttering is neither psychological nor neurological. It starts from a healthy dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness. The problem happens later when other people interfere and child is hopeless in meeting expectations of people according to the way child sees these expectations. It always take two or more to stutter. Stuttering continues because for short-term-gain of resolving the non-harmonious expectations and conflict between conscious and non-conscious, mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces.
Why does it keep changing from day to another day, from role to another role, from a sensitive word to another sensitive word? Because there is a balancing process in action. More disassociation brings need for more association. stuttering in one occasion bring relief in a few seconds later. Stuttering with one person makes you instantly more fluent with another person. Stuttering on one sound makes saying other sounds easier.

Can you provide any empirical evidence that it is a dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness? I highly doubt you can.

To the OP, its a mixture of neurological and environmental.

[Thecoherentman]

i think your throwing out a lot of psycho-jargon. talk to us in a language we can understand coherentdude

OK, simple;

Child starts thinking. deep thinking is new activity that distracts him, and he makes some mistakes when he talks. Parents notice and try to help him to speak better. He obeys the parents and tries to control his speech. Conscious mind actions are always slower than automatic actions (In western movies the hero waits for the bad guy to pull his gun first) The child's automatic inhibitory actions are quicker than his conscious attempt to talk. So he is really stuttering now, but not a big deal yet. He can sleep and next day not stutter at all and completely forget about stuttering. Or, he may learn that by distracting his conscious mind so he can use automatic forward actions and beat the negative inhibitory automatic actions. At this stage he is a stutterer because he actively distract himself to be able to speak fluently.

You may ask why all people do not stutter. The reason is that conscious control of speech is alot of work and brain wants to economize. Only a few % of people because they are naturally stronger and they have stronger healthy feelings of fear, shyness and shame and they have stronger determinations that they are in danger of becoming stutterers. Stuttering by far is more prevalent is smarter group of people.

[Thecoherentman]

I totally disagree. If stuttering is not neurological than why does dopamine altering drugs have "success" with the amount of fluent speech one says.....

Dopamine is molecule of life in the brain. Natural aging is regulated by Dopamine that must keep us alive until 115 years of age. Reducing your Dopamine will shift you more to the zombie side. I am not surprised if zombies do not stutter as much. But if they stutter even after becoming Zombies I really feel bad for them because they do not get the high of after stuttering.

[Thecoherentman]

Can you provide any empirical evidence that it is a dissociation of consciousness and subconsciousness? I highly doubt you can.

To the OP, its a mixture of neurological and environmental.

I said pure childhood dissociation is healthy. We have absent minded professors also. Newton returns home, he finds a note on his door that "Newton is not available" after reading the note he returns to the his office.

What I said "Stuttering continues because ... mind learns non-healthy dissociation that is distractions, and clash of internal forces." I think in every stutter we see the empirical evidence of trying to distract consciousness.

Stutterer on one side, carefully and consciously, is trying to control his speaking and at the same time he is trying to distract himself (blind his consciousness) so the words automatically jump out. This task takes extreme effort and strength.
Perhaps some stutterers recover after they develop some neurological diseases and they can not keep up with this difficult task any more, by for example taking Zyprexa. While they are neurologically fit they will stutter.

[bluesboy95]

Thecoherentman's point of view is very interesting, not something you hear everyday.

But I still think it could be neurological, because my mum had the same problem when she was a kid, and also, DAF/FAF makes me more fluent.

I've tried several fluency shaping techniques. They have reduced stuttering but not one of them has given me perfect fluency. Only DAF/FAF has given me that.

Different people probably have different symptoms anyway. Maybe in my case, stuttering is mostly neurological.

[ClinPsy]

Thecoherentman's point of view is very interesting, not something you hear everyday.

But I still think it could be neurological, because my mum had the same problem when she was a kid, and also, DAF/FAF makes me more fluent.

I've tried several fluency shaping techniques. They have reduced stuttering but not one of them has given me perfect fluency. Only DAF/FAF has given me that.

Different people probably have different symptoms anyway. Maybe in my case, stuttering is mostly neurological.

Nothing will give a stutterer perfect fluency. That realization is a liberating one.