How effective is speech therapy for stuttering?

[billythekid]

So I have had a stutter pretty much my whole life and my father had a mild one as well. I first remember mine starting when I was in around 3 or 4th grade...the teacher called on me to read a paragraph. I tried to begin, but no words were coming out. I am a mild to moderate stutter...just depends on the day I guess.

Along with my stutter I also ave anxiety (which is also untreated). This makes the stutter worse as I always worry about blocking and anticipate doing so.

With that said I have never really tried anything to make my stutter better...no speech therapy, meds, etc...just have been kinda dealing with it.

Along with my stutter I also ave anxiety (which is also untreated). This makes the stutter worse as I always worry about blocking and anticipate doing so.

So with that said does speech therapy actually work? I'm at the point in my life where I would like to finally try something to improve my speech. The biggest reason I put off speech therapy is because it seems to mostly fail (atleast thats what I see on this forum). Also it has been my experience that the less I think about my stutter the less I actualy stutter...by going to speech therapy I would be thinking about my speech constantly...possibly making it worse.

To me it seems like speech therapy wouldnt really provide much benefit since this problem is caused by a chemical imbalance of some sort and the anxiety around it. I am thinking that maybe a better route for me rather than speech therapy is an anti axiety med...something lie lexpro. I know xanax would work better, but I dont want to get hooked. I have been thinking of trying an ssri, but I have heard that these can make the stuttering worse in some.

Any and all ideas are welcome...thanks

[Bessie]

I feel the exact same way as you do. I don't really understand how I can speak fine to my close friends, family or even my pets, but I will stutter at work or meeting someone new. I had speech therapy when I was younger, and I don't know if Anxiety meds or Speech Therapy will help (or maybe the Speech Easy device).

A few years back I was on Celexa/Lexapro for about a year for depression/anxiety, and my stuttering decreased at lot. I went off of it for another year, and then went back on it for a year - and my stuttering stayed the same the second time around. I'm not taking anything now and I'm wondering if going just on anti-anxiety meds (not SSRIs) will help.

I'm just so sick of stuttering. It's so exhausting sometimes trying to figure out what will allow me to speak clearly.

[cjm555]

i used to take speech therapy classes all the time when i was younger and it sorta helped me... i would be in the class and talk perfectly (when i was using all the methods of talking they gave me) but when i would leave i would have a few problems again. that being said it did help my over all speaking ability somewhat. i wasnt stuttering near as much as before i started the classes

I have just started using the speach easy device mentioned above. I am not going to type it all again so here is a link to the thread i posted in about it

http://stutteringforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4815

I will do my best to keep updating that thread about my progress with that

[billythekid]

I feel the exact same way as you do. I don't really understand how I can speak fine to my close friends, family or even my pets, but I will stutter at work or meeting someone new. I had speech therapy when I was younger, and I don't know if Anxiety meds or Speech Therapy will help (or maybe the Speech Easy device).

A few years back I was on Celexa/Lexapro for about a year for depression/anxiety, and my stuttering decreased at lot. I went off of it for another year, and then went back on it for a year - and my stuttering stayed the same the second time around. I'm not taking anything now and I'm wondering if going just on anti-anxiety meds (not SSRIs) will help.

I'm just so sick of stuttering. It's so exhausting sometimes trying to figure out what will allow me to speak clearly.

Boy I can relate to this 100%.

I think speech therapy might help me somewhat...but my biggest problem is anticipation of stuttering. When my head starts thinking that I am going to stutter my brain gets wired to block. I don't see speech therapy being really effective in dealing with these types of blocks...but I could be wrong.

I'm sure the speecheasy works...but it just seems so expensive. Plus the effects wear off over time I believe as your brain gets used to the device. Not to menton that it seems to only be effective in certain places...in loud places like bars it doesnt work as well.

I do suffer from anxiety and depression...so I want to try a ssri, but I dont like the idea of being on mediction. Plus I am worried about making my stuttering worse. I am nearly convinced that a benzo like xanax would really help my speech, but am really scared of getting addicted to it. Kinda strange that the ssri helped you so much one time and nothing the second time...I wonder why that happened.