Anyone ever dealt with, beating stuttering?

[Informant X]

Greetings,

I'm 26 and tend to stutter in my speech occasionally. It's really effing annoying and constantly a source of stress. Just wondering if anyone has ever beaten it and how they did it? I would like to go the route of a book (but I doubt a book could help), also looked into some self hypnosis therapy CD's. Was also thinking about a seeing a speech therapist, or a hypnotist. Honestly it's embaracing and I'd prefer to be able to do something about it in the comfort of my own home. Any advice?

 

[theflyingpig]

Go see the speech therapist. Don't waste your time on that hypnosis crap.

 

[Informant X]

What kinda crap do they make you do? Talk in front of people and stuff? I do that on the phone all day at work in my customer service call center. Do they like make you do drills and stuff? Do you speak from experience? Also I'm not sure if I could afford a therapist right now. =/

 

[lxskllr]

I really don't know much about it, but I would think practice would help a lot. Maybe practice speaking deliberately, and try to control your stress. I'm guessing the stuttering gets worse as the stress level increases?

 

[magomago]

Can you read a book outloud without stuttering and with the proper pacing? I would bet that you probably have some issues in that as well.

Read stories outloud. Sounds incredibly stupid, especially if you are doing it to yourself, but it works. I had a habit doing something similar, except I would get myself caught in speech by talking too fast and pausing at the wrong places. My 5th grade teacher let me read "story time" aloud to the class. It forced me to slow down, and to learn to pace and ultimately it did wonders.

I would think that doing the same for stuttering is the way to go. Learning to read something (ie: your brain doesn't have to completely generate original material) outloud is the first step. I bet you anything that once you can read aloud smoothly then your other problems will simply resolve itself.

Spend half an hour each day/night (or longer depending on how much time you have) practicing. Report back a few months later and tell us how well you have progressed

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ just an idea, but I think Project Gutenberg has some kind of audiobook project, you could kill two birds with one stone.

 

[enwar3]

Way to be pro-active about this! Good luck! =)

 

[OCGuy]

I I I I I I Nnnnn




JK. No, but GL.

 

[harobikes333]

Go to a speech therapist.

NO, they don't make you talk in front of a ton of people. My buddy had a lot of speech problems growing up and the speech pathologist helped me talk WAY better.

You can't even tell he had any now days.

 

[n yusef]

I stutter. A couple summers ago, I went to an intensive speech therapy program, the New England Fluency Program. Before, I had trouble saying more than a sentence without stuttering. Now, I still rarely stutter, but I can control it and speak fluently if I concentrate on it. Every-so-often, I start stuttering and realize it, and I correct myself.

This program was four-weeks long, eight hours a day, Monday-Thursday. The first half of the program covered the psychological aspects of stuttering, and the last two weeks involved hours of tedious fluency-shaping exercises. If you can afford the time and money, and live in an area with a similar program, I strongly recommend it. The approach is very important; the psychological aspect of the program was just as helpful in improving fluency as the technical exercises.

I really don't think that this is something you can fix on your own.

Edit: I read some of the responses. If you follow them, you'll have temporary success. Many people who stutter, myself included, adopt a second speech pattern, different from their normal speech. Initially, when you use it, you will be fluent. But as you become more comfortable with that speech pattern, you will start to stutter with it.

People who stutter have real differences in their speech mechanics from naturally fluent speakers. To permanently become more fluent, you have to adopt these speech mechanics, a process which will be difficult to do, if not impossible, from reading books aloud.

See a speech-language pathologist.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I stutter pretty bad. There's no doubt about it. I saw speech therapists for years to no avail.

However, my job and school revolves around a ton of public speaking and I'm certainly good at it.

 

[Ryan]

I did. I don't want to say I've beaten it, but I have found the confidence in myself to finally handle it. When I thought people were over-analyzing me (speaking, and being the focal point), I used to get a weird adrenaline rush, and couldn't speak, but I forced myself into social situations - confronted the things that made me feel unwelcome/under a microscope, and realized that if I said what I really felt, and stopped worrying about what people thought of me, my stuttering and social anxiety went away.

My .002 cents.

 

[Mojoed]

I'll tell you what worked for me: Deep breaths when you feel it about to happen and try your best to SLOOOW down your brain. Make an effort to speak slower too.

 

[Informant X]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I really don't know much about it, but I would think practice would help a lot. Maybe practice speaking deliberately, and try to control your stress. I'm guessing the stuttering gets worse as the stress level increases?

Yea I think stress, and knowing I'm going to have to say words that I have problems with trigger stress which can make it worse.

Originally posted by: magomago
Can you read a book outloud without stuttering and with the proper pacing? I would bet that you probably have some issues in that as well.

Read stories outloud. Sounds incredibly stupid, especially if you are doing it to yourself, but it works. I had a habit doing something similar, except I would get myself caught in speech by talking too fast and pausing at the wrong places. My 5th grade teacher let me read "story time" aloud to the class. It forced me to slow down, and to learn to pace and ultimately it did wonders.

I would think that doing the same for stuttering is the way to go. Learning to read something (ie: your brain doesn't have to completely generate original material) outloud is the first step. I bet you anything that once you can read aloud smoothly then your other problems will simply resolve itself.

Spend half an hour each day/night (or longer depending on how much time you have) practicing. Report back a few months later and tell us how well you have progressed

Yea I've already kinda tried stuff like that. Like I've tried to actively slow my speech down and try to anunciate each word. Doesn't seem to help much though. :/

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
^ just an idea, but I think Project Gutenberg has some kind of audiobook project, you could kill two birds with one stone.

What's project Gutenberg?

Originally posted by: enwar3
Way to be pro-active about this! Good luck! =)

Yea lets wait and see how this turns out. :/

Originally posted by: OCguy
I I I I I I Nnnnn




JK. No, but GL.

Yea I knew it was coming. I'm not nearly that bad.

Originally posted by: harobikes333
Go to a speech therapist.

NO, they don't make you talk in front of a ton of people. My buddy had a lot of speech problems growing up and the speech pathologist helped me talk WAY better.

You can't even tell he had any now days.

So are you talking about you or you're friend?

Originally posted by: n yusef
I stutter. A couple summers ago, I went to an intensive speech therapy program, the New England Fluency Program. Before, I had trouble saying more than a sentence without stuttering. Now, I still rarely stutter, but I can control it and speak fluently if I concentrate on it. Every-so-often, I start stuttering and realize it, and I correct myself.

This program was four-weeks long, eight hours a day, Monday-Thursday. The first half of the program covered the psychological aspects of stuttering, and the last two weeks involved hours of tedious fluency-shaping exercises. If you can afford the time and money, and live in an area with a similar program, I strongly recommend it. The approach is very important; the psychological aspect of the program was just as helpful in improving fluency as the technical exercises.

I really don't think that this is something you can fix on your own.

Edit: I read some of the responses. If you follow them, you'll have temporary success. Many people who stutter, myself included, adopt a second speech pattern, different from their normal speech. Initially, when you use it, you will be fluent. But as you become more comfortable with that speech pattern, you will start to stutter with it.

People who stutter have real differences in their speech mechanics from naturally fluent speakers. To permanently become more fluent, you have to adopt these speech mechanics, a process which will be difficult to do, if not impossible, from reading books aloud.

See a speech-language pathologist.

I'll look into this defintely, but not sure if I would be able to keep my job being i'd have to take a 4 week leave and all. :/

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx
I stutter pretty bad. There's no doubt about it. I saw speech therapists for years to no avail.

However, my job and school revolves around a ton of public speaking and I'm certainly good at it.

So you just got used to it and beat it on your own? How? I've been trying to do this for years!

Originally posted by: Ryan
I did. I don't want to say I've beaten it, but I have found the confidence in myself to finally handle it. When I thought people were over-analyzing me (speaking, and being the focal point), I used to get a weird adrenaline rush, and couldn't speak, but I forced myself into social situations - confronted the things that made me feel unwelcome/under a microscope, and realized that if I said what I really felt, and stopped worrying about what people thought of me, my stuttering and social anxiety went away.

My .002 cents.

I'll put the two scents in my piggy bank. Thanks

 

[n yusef]

You can do shorter sessions with a speech-language pathologist, like an hour a week plus home practice. It will take longer to get the results you want, but you can do it if you're dedicated. Call some speech-language pathologists in your area.

 

[GasX]

blow jobs

 

[TurtleCrusher]

To be honest I just stopped caring about it. I work in loss prevention of all jobs, and I'm going to school to be a teacher.

I just stop myself or use an alternate word. I'll admit this doesn't work reading aloud, but it basic commentary it's just fine. And believe me, my stuttering isn't just some mild case.