Most stutterers do not seek therapy or self-help . . .

[DFedison]

A friend of mine who stutters told me that most people who stutter don't go into speech therapy, or do any sort of self-help. I don't know where he found this out, but I've heard it from another source as well, and now it's got me thinking.

I am, of course, wondering why this is. These people--are their stutters more mild? Are they, perhaps, naturally more accepting of their disfluent speech? Do they have so much going on in their lives that stuttering simply doesn't bother them? The idea baffles me--that somebody could just naturally be okay with the fact that they stutter.

Understand, I'm not talking about adults or even relatively young adults who have decided that speech therapy/self-help are not beneficial to them. No, I mean people (and young people, at that; the people I've known who fit this discription were between the ages of 12 and 18) who have seemingly ignored the hindrances that stuttering is notorious for, and have never attended a speech therapy or self-help session.

The few people that I have met who have never been in speech therapy (as far as I know) have been, or seemed to be, moderate to severe stutterers.

I have tremendous respect for anyone who has been able to adopt this attitude, but I haven't met enough of them to be totally convinced that this notion--that there are so many of them compared to those who are more concerned about their speech--is true. I've met a lot more mild stutterers, people who avoid blocking and stuttering (to various degrees of success and contentedness), then I have people who stutter openly and who don't care about it.

Damn, I really wish there were some statistics on this sort of thing. That would really help my understanding.

[Nemo]

There are many closet stutterers; there's still a lot of stigma attached to stuttering, so many people don't come out. They manage to get by through avoiding and / or substituting difficult words / situations, but some of them live in constant fear of being 'found out'. Also there are many mild stutterers who are quite fluent apart from a few words, for them stuttering is not a problem.

I think it also depends on one's circumstances. Often people only look for treatment when they are really being frustrated in life's major needs: a job / money and finding a significant other. If these needs have been satisfied, then the need for improved fluency is less acute.

[spacebow]

Well, I would be one of those mild stutterers that never sought help thus far in life. I can tell you that because I am a mild stutterer, sometimes I can come off as completely fluent. That's why, while my parents and many of my friends notice that I stutter when I talk, they don't feel like it's that big of a deal to confront me about it and encourage me to get help.

And, personally, even though I know my stutter is an impediment in life, I don't seek help because I am so self-conscious about it, not because I have adopted the attitude of accepting my stutter. I wish that was the case, but I just get too insecure whenever I try to come out and address my speech impediment to other people.

I hope that I will one day have enough confidence to step up and come clean with my speech problem.

[Box of Clocks]

I have never been to speech therapy and I don't think I ever will. I can't be bothered to learn and practice the techniques.

[DFedison]

I definitely think you're right in saying that, Nemo. There's several people I observe who go out of their way to hide their stuttering. Being a stutterer, I can immediately tell from a person's behavior, patterns of speech, etc. that they stutter.