shrubhub
06-21-2010, 11:26 PM
I go on forums like this all of the time for things like my car, but this is the first time that I have gone on the stuttering forum. I just wanted to relate my experience with taking Abilify and how it has greatly helped my stuttering.
I started stuttering probably around 2nd or 3rd grade and it continued throughout my life (I'm almost 37 now). I'd say that I would be considered a moderate stutterer, although at times it could become severe enough that I couldn't get any words out at all. During my freshman year of college, I spent my spring break and more at HCRI. While what I learned at HCRI didn't translate all that well into real life situations, it did at least give me some confidence in knowing that there was a way for me to be fluent, even if it was using their techniques, which I couldn't seem to master in real-world situations.
In my 20's, my stuttering seemed to ease a bit, but it was still there and in stressful situations it could become quite bad again. One "cure" I found was that if I had a few drinks, my stuttering would nearly disappear. This led me to start drinking too much and experimenting with drugs as well. In the end, this caused many other problems for me in my life, which I believe ended up bringing the stuttering back worse than ever.
Finally, a few years ago, I was seeing a psychiatrist due to the drug and alcohol problem I had and he of course noticed my speech during our visits. At the end of one of our visits, he said he had just been talking with another md friend of his in a different state who had been doing research on using drugs like Abilify to treat stutterers. He asked me if I wanted to try it out and see what effect it had on my speech.
After a week or so taking Abilify, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my speech. I have been on it for several years now at 10mg/day and I would now say that I have a slight stuttering problem and that it only seems to bother me if I'm very tired or very aggitated and have to speak, usually on the phone.
I guess I'm just here to relate my story because I'd like to offer some hope to other people in my spot and to see if anyone else has had the same results or different results using Abilify or other related drugs.
I started stuttering probably around 2nd or 3rd grade and it continued throughout my life (I'm almost 37 now). I'd say that I would be considered a moderate stutterer, although at times it could become severe enough that I couldn't get any words out at all. During my freshman year of college, I spent my spring break and more at HCRI. While what I learned at HCRI didn't translate all that well into real life situations, it did at least give me some confidence in knowing that there was a way for me to be fluent, even if it was using their techniques, which I couldn't seem to master in real-world situations.
In my 20's, my stuttering seemed to ease a bit, but it was still there and in stressful situations it could become quite bad again. One "cure" I found was that if I had a few drinks, my stuttering would nearly disappear. This led me to start drinking too much and experimenting with drugs as well. In the end, this caused many other problems for me in my life, which I believe ended up bringing the stuttering back worse than ever.
Finally, a few years ago, I was seeing a psychiatrist due to the drug and alcohol problem I had and he of course noticed my speech during our visits. At the end of one of our visits, he said he had just been talking with another md friend of his in a different state who had been doing research on using drugs like Abilify to treat stutterers. He asked me if I wanted to try it out and see what effect it had on my speech.
After a week or so taking Abilify, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my speech. I have been on it for several years now at 10mg/day and I would now say that I have a slight stuttering problem and that it only seems to bother me if I'm very tired or very aggitated and have to speak, usually on the phone.
I guess I'm just here to relate my story because I'd like to offer some hope to other people in my spot and to see if anyone else has had the same results or different results using Abilify or other related drugs.