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I was going to post this on the doctor forum, and I may yet, but I figure there are more eyes here with anecdotal experience to share. (In fact, would it being against a rule of post it there, too? I don't know SA’s policy of that.) I’ve stuttered (stammered, you UK people might call ti), rather badly, since birth, along with several other speech impediments. In kindergarten, I had a therapist and, by the fourth grade, I could speak with relatively fluency and I kept that up until graduation. In college, it all fell apart. I think a large part of my earlier recovery was getting over social anxiety among my classmates, With all those classmates changed for others, and many others than before, that I had no familiarity with, my ability to speak fluently vanished almost overnight. Alone with my my cat for an audience, I can speak fine and without even the slightest difficulty. I can record myself, knowing it will be heard by others, and that’s no problem, either. But speaking to a group, especially a very small one, is absolute hell. I’ve taken more than one experiment drug that had the potential to help, and did very effectively tell your internal filter to shut up and say the first thing that cones to your mind, but that’s not helping my stuttering problem all I’m embarrassed, There’s no other word for it. 99% of listeners just assume I’m retarded and begin speaking to me as a child, if I’m not dismissed altogether. I’ve sought speech therapy—there are a number of therapists in walking distance at town—but they treat only children. Is there anyone online who can help an adult stutterer? What about self-guided exercises? I’d really rather have a live therapist's help, but I’m looking for anything An unrealistic goal, I know, bur I really want to be able to deliver a short speech and Q&A at the end of this July, Ortho fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 20, 2024 18:09
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Well, this is going to be poo poo advice probably, but a good friend of mine has a stammer, and I've got cerebral palsy, and together we've worked out: everyone gives less of a poo poo than you do. I promise! We're always well self-conscious about our flaws, but my friend's trick was every time he'd get it really bad, he'd quote A Fish Called Wanda(which has a prominent character with a stammer, if you haven't seen it) and play it off a a joke, and then take a moment, and he'd be able to speak without the stammer.
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Feb 21, 2024 08:05
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I have a stutter as an adult, and I understand how you might be feeling. As a kid I stuttered, went through therapy, and by highschool I had it 90% masked, and by the time I graduated university no one knew I had any issue with speaking, and just considered me a quiet person. Fast forward to five years ago I injured my brain badly enough that I am stuttering again, this time in a completely different flavour. Insurance paid for therapy and I am now fluent at work or in public. Home is for resting and it takes considerable intention and effort to talk normal. I recommend therapy, even if it doesn't help directly it'll make you feel better about how you sound, and talking to someone who understands can lift your spirits a bit. And I'd like to ask how your stutter presents, because when I was a kid I had blocks and stammers at the initiation of speech, so the therapist then focused on a "stretch and blend" approach. After the brain injury I repeat every syllable, so the approach was the Camperdown method which is very different.
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Feb 21, 2024 16:11
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Bi-la kaifa posted:I have a stutter as an adult, and I understand how you might be feeling. As a kid I stuttered, went through therapy, and by highschool I had it 90% masked, and by the time I graduated university no one knew I had any issue with speaking, and just considered me a quiet person. Fast forward to five years ago I injured my brain badly enough that I am stuttering again, this time in a completely different flavour. Insurance paid for therapy and I am now fluent at work or in public. Home is for resting and it takes considerable intention and effort to talk normal. * * * As I said, there’s an event coming up at the end of July where I really, really must address a crowd of 75-100 people. Now, historically, I’ve always been better with crowds than in one-on-one conversations. It’s the impersonalness of a crowd, I think. Really, I do think the root cause of my stuttering (partly genetic, I know—my mother and maternal grandparent both stuttered to a greater or lesser degree) is undiagnosed social anxiety disorder or some manner of undiagnosed autism. I’ve tried meds for both of those disorders, but like I said, they did not help the stuttering but did simply kill my internal filter and I said things to people that I would never in my right mind have said and, as they also caused amnesia, I’d not even remember whatever the unfortunate things I said. were. What I learned as a kid (I give no names to these techniques because I never knew them) was to slow the hell down (my natural tempo is rather allegro), to take a deep breath between phrases, and begin speaking on the exhale. There were still some sound pairing that I could not, to save my life, ever successfully say, like “alligator”—that first A followed by an I are impossible—but I’d gotten adept and substituting alternative words on the fly. I try to do all that still, but I really just can’t. I get flustered, and when I get flustered I started stuttering, and that results in more fluster and embarrassed because, rightly or wrongly, people by and large equate stuttering with retardation. Even people who should know better—doctors, nurses, med techs, and the like—I can see the shift in their speech immediately, when they start talking down to me, slowly, with simple monosyllables, and when I try to reply, they’ll interrupt me and finish my speech as they imagine it would have gone. There are self-guided programs on YouTube. But I’d be alone while taking them, and my stutter only emerges when talking to other people, especially with strangers, and most especially one-on-one. I need something that’s going to put me in front of a stranger. As I said, there are three speech therapists in town and not one of them treats adults. And so as much as I would like to actually meet in person (I think I’d get more from that) I’ve been looking online at telehealth providers. Are there any?—reputable, I mean? Has anyone used one? Ortho fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 05:24
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My father had an absolutely devastating stutter and a speech therapist did the trick. Can't necessarily help you with searching but just a +1 that it was life changing. now you can't shut the man up
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Feb 22, 2024 07:40
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Camperdown method might be worth looking into if you want to go the self directed route. It's laid out in various YouTube videos, just a guy talking really really slow, and then as you get more comfortable at slow speeds you gradually increase your rate until you sound almost normal. Every level has the same guy reading the same passage (something about butterflies if I remember correctly) at the speed that corresponds with the level so you have a solid point of reference. My SLP had me pick the lowest level I could stand, and then each week we would converse at that level until I felt comfortable. All you would really need is a conversation partner with patience. In retrospect it really helped with relearning how to talk. When I'm at work I often go back those stupidly slow conversations and remember that I can control myself when I want to. Also! My speech therapist's practice was only kids. They really enjoyed having an adult to talk to a couple times a week. One of your local therapists might feel the same way.
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Feb 23, 2024 02:18
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Couldn't get one locally to return my calls, but I've found an online one that uses Zoom or such such to still be one-on-one. Not met, yet, fingers crossed that it help. My stuttering seems linked more to anxiety. I'm usually okay with crowds if the lights are on me and I can''t really see the audience. Then it's like I'm alone. But his coming up event--well, it's a film festival and the accompanist is going to talk to the audience and I've got to as well, with the house lights up. I've not got a long speech prepared -- just five minutes all. And after the show, I know hoards are going to swarm me with questions that would be too impolite to brush off. (It's http://www.silentmaine.com/ to forestall any questions about the festival.
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Feb 25, 2024 21:37
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I have a couple of close family members who stutter quite a bit. They've tried various therapies over the years, but as you know there's no silver bullet. One of them is now doing the McGuire programme. As far as I can tell it's all about leaning rather aggressively into the stuttering, and it seems to be working quite well. It doesn't eliminate, nor aim to eliminate, the stuttering, but reduces it fairly well as far as I can tell. I don't know if there's a location near you, but maybe check it out?
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Mar 7, 2024 17:58
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