Stutterer from Philly

[MariaGostrey]

I've been a stutterer since about the first grade. It's gone up and down in severity. Now I'm at one of my worst points ever, so I'm back in therapy and working to eliminate all these filler words I've been using to get through sentences (anyone else do this?).

I've gotten a lot better about telling people right off the bat that I have a stutter, and their response is almost always friendly and sympathetic. But now I want to improve my actual speech, end the anxiety, and get to a place where I can have a conversation that doesn't leave me frustrated.

Therapy is going well so far but I want to find other approaches, too. Has anyone tried yoga or meditation? Medication? Astral projection? Anything?

Anyway, I've never really talked to other stutterers so I was so excited to find this forum. :) Looking forward to meeting all of you!

[Box of Clocks]

Hello and welcome aboard. I use filler words a fair bit myself. Not ideal by any means but it helps me get through a situation in the heat of the moment. I haven't tried any meditation/yoga so I can't offer any thoughts there.

[MichaelWilliams]

Hello I too am originally from Philly. Born and raised. Welcome.

[jamesm]

HI Maria! Welcome to the forum. I'm actually trying to move to Philly soon. I recently learned about the Philly NSA chapter, you said that you have really never talked to other stutterers, from what I hear the Philly chapter is a really good one :)

I actually have found that meditation has helped with stuttering. Not so much the physical nature of it, such as the "stuttering", lol, but the attitudes and emotions accompanied with it. Meditation sort of helps you to be more accepting and recover quicker from embarrassing interactions. What I have really found helpful is talking to myself out loud, or in front of a mirror. While doing this, I talk 100% fluent without any stuttering secondary behaviors such as word substitution or blocking. It sounds crazy but I think just hearing yourself speak fluently and literally seeing yourself speak fluently is a very powerful experience. (I do realize however, that speaking alone and actually "communicating" with others is a completely different animal.) I will confess that it is very frustrating to speak out loud in my car on the way to work or something for like 15-20 minutes, no blocks or dis-fluencies AT ALL, then walk through the door of my office and immediately have little dis-fluent moments...SUPER FRUSTRATING! But I feel like my speech has improved a great deal in doing this. As a kid I was a severe stutterer. Then I moved to moderate through middle school and high scool, sort of back to sever during college, and now I would classify myself as mild, maybe 95% fluent, all the time. However, I still am reluctant to be in "stressful" speaking situations (job interviews, public speaking, introducing myself--always feel like I will block on my name).

Anyway, welcome!

[MichaelWilliams]

I've been a stutterer since about the first grade. It's gone up and down in severity. Now I'm at one of my worst points ever, so I'm back in therapy and working to eliminate all these filler words I've been using to get through sentences (anyone else do this?).

I've gotten a lot better about telling people right off the bat that I have a stutter, and their response is almost always friendly and sympathetic. But now I want to improve my actual speech, end the anxiety, and get to a place where I can have a conversation that doesn't leave me frustrated.

Therapy is going well so far but I want to find other approaches, too. Has anyone tried yoga or meditation? Medication? Astral projection? Anything?

Anyway, I've never really talked to other stutterers so I was so excited to find this forum. :) Looking forward to meeting all of you!
Welcome. This is a great place to get tips, tricks, techniques and support. What seemed to work best for me was affirmations, practice and public speaking. Without any one of these I don't think I would be as fluent as I am today.