For most of my life, aside from a period of time in elementary when I took speech therapy classes, I haven't had any problems stuttering when speaking in English. These past few years in school I've taken an Asian language course so I could communicate better when speaking with my extended family. When I'm in class or talking with friends I my speech is mostly ok, and I can overcome most stutters. However, when I finally get the chance to talk with my extended family on the phone or in person I am almost always stuck getting past the first word. While I am certainly not the best at speaking this second language, I know the issue doesn't really lie with a lack of knowledge. Every time that I do stutter, I already clearly knew what I wanted to say. It just gets stuck in my throat and my grandparents or cousins just have to awkwardly sit there or try to finish my sentences (which doesn't help). Eventually I just realize that I can't really talk without speaking English, a language that my extended family doesn't really speak. Even if they were to speak in English to me, it would defeat the purpose of me practicing with them or being able to connect with them in a language they are comfortable with.

This has been incredibly frustrating and I can only imagine how those who have struggled with it in their native language must feel. While this isn't exactly the type of case that you guys normally deal with personally, I was wondering if you guys had any tips to deal with it or even idea where this newfound stutter might stem from.

If you tuly believe that you'll stutter forever, you will . Stick one thumb between your index and middle finger. Close your hands. You're making a "C" o n top of that thumb. You see it?? That "C" is for Courage. Squeeze your "C" (hands) rhythmically and lovingly as you talk. Love yourself, cuz you should. There's so much Power in your belief system. I know how painful stuttering is. You're already courageous for living with it. Your Family and Friends Love you. Love yourself. Smile and Speak. It's in you if you have the Courage to do this for days... One Day at a Time. I have Real Love for anyone who stutters, too. I haven't stuttered in 40 years now, but reading this thread always gets me weepy. I remember. Be Courageous <3

Hello guys! I'm 25 years old now, and I overcome stuttering 90%, I can control my speech every situation. Every week I usually do 1-2 presentation to 15-20 people. I learned a lot about this syndrome, analyzed myself, and learned how to control my thoughts, movement and of course my speech.

Here is my "method": -Try to find your new speaking style, try copy someone, but don't rush, you have to feel discomfort during your speech, but you have to learn how to not focus on other people opinion. It's good if you feeling strange, but don't care about it.

• read loud every morning, and practice your new speech, try to make expirement when you feel comfortable etc. and after summarize what you read, it's better if somebody is around you
• talk about your stutter to your friends and tell them that you are going to do something about it, ask for their opinion about your new style, laugh together
• from now every situation is a practice! If you stutter is only because you can't focus enough and calm enough, nothing wrong with you(speech calmness is different then regular calm state)
• don't avoid or switch words just try to say them different in a friendly way
• inspire from other people who beat stutter because it's possible, read psychologycal books, try to understand your feelings, your mind.
• don't care about your blocks, try to make fun fun of it.

I have a lot more but I think its more than enough for the first time.

Have a great day, I hope that I can help someone with this post. :)

All throughout highschool I would avoid presentations at any cost or I would do them in private with a teacher because of my stutter, but in college I wanted to change that. I remember my first presentation when I got to college I was stuttering a good amount but I still got through it. Second time around in a different class first I disclosed my stutter to them and I did a little better. I was more calm and stuttered less but it was still there. In this third presentation I did in the same class I disclosed my stutter in I just had my best presentation yet. Even though I was nervous and looking down at the slides 90% of my part I was able to fluently speak sentences and had stuttering here and there but it was for the most part fluent. I think what’s really helping me to improve and grow in terms of stuttering and presentations is to just say fuck it and do it anyways with a stutter or not. Running from presentations only increased my anxiety around them and made me fear them more so instead I’m facing them head on in college so I can grow and so I won’t fear them anymore.

i am a 23m that stuttered my whole life, never felt the feeling of being fluent. i dont know if it makes any sense, but i feel anger rather than sadness, angry on whom? idk. even though i am a calm person and rarely get mad.

recently, i am feeling more and more desperate, idk why maybe afraid of what is coming after university. i am embarrassed to open up about how i feel to one of my family or friends - i dont feel anyone can understand until they are in you shoes-, i hate the fact that i feel crippled somehow and i dont want anyone feel pitty on me

i wrote this here because you do understand , just wanted to get my feeling out and try to relax my mind. i hope one day this nightmare ends

I’ve had a stutter since 2nd grade (29 years now). In 8th grade, a speech therapist recommended I try Speech Easy, a DAF (Delayed Auditory Feedback) device. It initially worked wonders, reducing my stutter by about 50%. For a few months, I could even read aloud in school with only a few stutters. But over time, the effect faded, and my stutter returned to its original severity.

Later, I overcame some of my social anxiety and became more comfortable speaking, though I still avoid long conversations when possible. Now, I’m considering trying DAF again, maybe using AirPods since I usually wear them.

Has anyone tried DAF devices? What were your experiences, short- and long-term? Would you recommend them?

When I mentioned making time, I was referring to a commitment of several days or even weeks.. I'm just immediately gonna say it to avoid confusion. The goal of the collaboration is to brainstorm, add new concepts, and substantially enhance the text. The aim is to - when we are finished - share it on reddit after a couple of weeks. Hope for a second pair of eyes. Okay, peace out and remember, keep it classy :)

In the past I used to talk fluently with little hiccups in my speech from time to time. It was mostly just a case of the nerves that got to me. I’ve been in stage performances, coordinated events, and spoke in large groups. It only when I do things that aren’t as coordinated that I slip up and stutter for minutes on end. It hards to talk about my feelings, compliments others, ask women out, give presentations, roast people, talk about experiences clearly, etc. I think this might be an issue with the lack of structure in how I speak.

In a stage performances theres a beginning, middle, and an end. Each line has a significance in being there, but most of us only focus on our lines because that’s our part. Having to say everyone’s part, from the top, by yourself, without your lines beside you, is most of speaking. The issue is bad communicators don’t have a beginning, middle, and an end in mind when speaking. Stutterers like me don’t have one in place at all.

The difficulty in explaining an experience is finding the beginning, middle, and end. Most of the time the beginning, middle, and end has a sub stack of itself in itself that makes it hard to be clear if you haven’t figured out what it is yet. I feel like very good communicators have a knack for identifying these in there life, so when speaking about themselves, events, things, people, etc it’s just about them keeping to their story and identifying the structure.

I’ve always struggled with keeping to my story because I felt something was more interesting or important in my story and just went back and forth. Getting people confused because I have no clue where to end things plus having no idea if I explained a point throughly without a clear response back. I’ve noticed myself stuttering when I’m nervous or start rambling. In those moments I try to figure out if I explained my point across, judge peoples body language to see if they understand me, and at the same time tally myself on the points I’ve explained so I know where to end my explanation. My mind does all these things at once, increasing my anxiety, which leads me to think about every external thing, forgetting what I just talked about, and forcing me to stutter as a result.

All I know is that it wasn’t this bad before COVID and if all I have to do is practice speaking with structure and quickly identifying structure in my memories speaking clearly might be nearing me soon. So if I truly still have the chance at speaking as fluid as others my stutter may not be as bad as I thought.

Hey there,

I personally have never posted any cure story on this subreddit, but I have been active here since 2015-16.

Many times, I come across a post how someone was able to overcome their stuttering, I save that post, and when I revisit, that post usually gets deleted in next few days. Isn't it better to keep the posts up, even if most of the stuttering community doesn't believe in their methods?

These are the few posts which were deleted, where OPs overcame their stuttering:

• 2-3 hours meditation every day for 1 year. It reduced OP's anxiety, and totally removed the stuttering.
• Using EDMR therapy + some breathing techniques.
• Change in mindset by change in environment + other stuff (I couldn't read, but saved it, later it was deleted)

And these were from last 2-3 months, I'm not adding the ones removed before that.

I'm 17 and I'm just fed up with my stuttering problem. Just a few minutes back, my mom's frined who lives in our society rang the doorbell and asked where my mom was. I wanted to say that she had gone for walking in the society compound but I messed up. I couldn't open my mouth and say it out loud coz I knew that I'm gonna stutter. For around 5-6 seconds I tried really hard, and then when I said it, I stuttered badly. Somehow I said that my mom has gone out. I could see the awkwardness on her face as well. This incident just shattered my confidence man, I came inside and yelled at myself and I'm pissed off and feeling helpless while writing this.

It's been almost 5-6 years since I'm facing this stuttering issue. I remember I used to talk very fluently and smoothly when I was young. And I talked a lot. Idk how this thing developed, god only knows. To be honest, I've started speaking less and interacting with less people to avoid embarrassment. When I speak, and know I'm gonna stutter saying out a specific word, I just take a pause or probably think of an alternative word which would serve the same purpose. And sometimes, I'd act as if I'm thinking/remembering something but the reality is that I'm actually scared to speak out knowing that I'll mess up.

What's more disheartening is that my parents don't even acknowledge this as a problem. They ask me to be cool and calm while speaking. Sometimes, my dad yells at me and asks me to talk slowly. Someone who stutters can probably relate with this.

I need some help. Thinking about the thought that I'll probably approach a speech therapist after convincing my parents (not gonna be easy) and will get a solution, gives me hope. Also, is there any way to make this situation better? Probably something which I can practice by myself? Idk how appropriate it is to post this on this subreddit, but I'm really desperate for some assistance from people who've been through stuttering. I just searched on reddit to see if there's a subreddit related to stuttering, and thank God I got one:)

I (27/M) create content on TikTok and also YouTube, so I spend a lot of time talking alone in front of a camera. What really confuses me is that in my videos I can see how articulate and how much of a good communicator I am. I must admit I do sometimes slightly stutter in those videos, but I am about 90% fluent. What really sucks is that I cannot be like this when talking to someone face to face lol. I stutter a lot, you would almost think my stutter is more on the severe side. I get blocks and can hardly get a word out. I usually keep my conversations brief and short because stuttering is so exhausting. I wish I could show people in real life how articulate, animated and funny I can be. People in my life have commented on how different I seem on social media. I am a very quiet person in real life and I do not enjoy talking due to my stutter. Most people in my life perceive me as being stupid because of the way I talk. I cannot speak clearly and articulate myself when I am around others.

I do believe it is a anxiety issue because when I am alone I am very calm and relaxed. I can also think more clearly. Face to face interactions give me a lot of anxiety and I am constantly worried I am going to mess up. This really sucks if am honest. It is like no one knows the real me.

I have been unemployed for a long time. Social anxiety and stuttering make it difficult for me to find a job. My job interviews are a disaster. So I thought I would ask the community... what do I have to lose? Nothing.

Where we can talk to people like us

Hi Im Mohammad(24) i have stutter since 5 and is so hard for me to communicate with female person

any suggestion?

I've heard people say:

"People who stutter don't stutter when they read out loud"

"People who stutter don't stutter when they curse"

"People who stutter don't stutter when they talk to themselves"

This may be the case for a lot of people, but some people do stutter when they talk to themselves/read out loud/curse. I stutter on curse words just the same as any other word. I don't usually stutter when I read out loud or talk to myself but I definitely have before, as I know some other people do. Please let's stop acting like everyone has the same experience with stuttering.

Did anyone tried it? In the last weeks i was thinking to try it and i am not sure if it will worth the time and money.

Pretty curious about your experiences.

Message to everyone there: stuttering isn’t curable, but it is treatable to the point where it barely is a problem anymore.

I’m a high schooler, and struggled with a severe stutter since I was 4. I was very extroverted, but could barely talk so essentially just gaslighted myself into thinking I was an introvert. It persisted throughout middle school, and at times I felt mentally incapable, especially due to high expectations placed upon me.

By bad stutter, I mean bad. I basically had a bank of like 20 words that I would use, because anything else would result in me embarrassing myself. The pain of knowing exactly what to say but not being able to say it is something only we can understand.

Then, I decided to do something about it. I forced myself to join debate freshman year, even though I was deathly afraid of public speaking. However, I knew I loved to talk and sincerely wanted to improve. Every day at night, I would look at myself in the mirror and just talk, talk, and talk.

Recently, I made state for congressional debate (Texas). I became president of both debate and Model UN at my school. In debates, I can’t even remember that I have a stutter anymore, and it never even comes to bother me.

Stuttering is physical, but like any muscle, it can be affect both through training and mental exercise. Now, whenever I truly stutter, people think I’m doing it on purpose with how little it happens. People who previously ridiculed me now come to me for help on presentations and public speaking as a whole.

If anyone wants help on what to do to improve, feel free to ask!

Hello,

When i (58m) was in 3rd grade i developed a debilitating stutter. Was so bad at one point that i could not even speak when i would answer the phone.

This stutter lasted until around 20 yrs old - but it lingers to this day.

I have no memory of it, but my parents tell me that in third grade a had a mean and impatient teacher.

For all these years i had always assumed that her "meanness" was classwide.

Recently, due to another issue - which I'll cover below - my mother told me that one day when i came home from 3rd grade my school bag had other student's pages mixed in with mine own. When she asked me how that happened, i told her that this mean teacher purposefully knocked a bunch of kid's papers on the floor and made me pick them all up. Again, no recollection - but does suggest that the poor treatment was directed at me... not class wide.

Without going deep into the "how" - a very long story... i found out about 8 months ago that i have dyslexia.

I always knew i read slowly - just never knew how slowly... apparently about 140 words a min (typical adult is 250). And this is at the age of 58! Am baffled and mad at myself for not figuring this all out sooner, but i just assumed EVERYONE reread sentences multiple times before getting it right! (I omit words, add words, change the order of words).

:(

It now occurs to me that the poor treatment towards me by this 3rd grade teacher was most probably linked to my inability to properly read... quickly and smoothly like other children.

The pieces sadly kinda fit.

I've looked in things only a little and it seems as though there are 2 types of stuttering.

Aquired and Developmental

It would seem that my stuttering (if caused by mean teacher) would be "aquired," yet what i have read on it says that "verbal" or "emotional" abuse cannot cause stuttering...

So... I'm kinda confused.

Any guidance/info/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thx.

I don’t really know what I’m trying to achieve here. But think I just need to vent ? Anyway I’ve stuttered my whole life, I think it’s developed and changed as I’ve grown. I don’t really remember much of it as a child but I think that’s because I didn’t care ?

It wasn’t until like the start of secondary school shit quite literally hit the fan. I had quite a few times where teachers would ask me to read out and I’d be reading out loud fine no issues, and then I’d suddenly get stuck, I know the word it’s right in front of me Since then my stutter leaves me unable to say the word I want or need to. In certain situations I’m able to change the word for something similar or rephrase what I’m saying ?

But this isn’t always the case, I could literally be left unable to say my name. Whenever I go to say that word I want it’s like I’m being suffocated, I could be fluent up until that point, and then next thing I know I’m changing every word I want to say in a desperate attempt to be as fluent as possible.

Living life like that I’ve effectively developed some kind of social anxiety, I overthink every kind of situation that involves me having to speak, it took me ages to get a job after leaving school. Interviews were either okay or just straight up disaster, I didn’t apply for loads of jobs because I just couldn’t see it working for me and how I am, or the interview processes being highly competitive, with many stages and presentations, how can I compete ?

I’ve got a job now it’s not great I could definitely do better but this thing is holding me back 100% I still make an embarrassment of myself at work on the daily, I’ll struggle to say good morning to people and stuff like that sometimes.

But what I don’t get is I stutter a whole lot less, with my friends, it still happens and I’ve never really addressed it with them because I seem to be able to hide it much better around them ?

For context I’m 21M I don’t know what I’m trying to get out of this I’ve wanted to post in here for ages but don’t even know where to start, if you read all that and didn’t fall asleep cheers 🍻

I've been thinking about this for a very long time and as a person who stutters, I feel like I'm in a good position to talk about this. Over the many many years I've lived on this earth, I've encountered people who wanna get a rise out of you. I'm aware that these kinds of people attack people who don't stutter as well but I'm not a person who doesn't stutter so I wouldn't know what they're experiences are. Usually, when I encountered these kinds of people, I would always give them attention. My mindset was that they were talking to me because they wanted to be my friend and wanted to get to know me. I was very very wrong. I found out that every time I would start talking to these narcissistic, they would laugh. I never said anything funny, but they would still laugh. My first intuition about this was, "hey, maybe they weren't expecting you to have a stutter." In this particular situation, I was wrong again. I noticed that those kinds of people don't actually care about you as a person. They never ask you how your day has been, they never say good morning, and they never treat you like they're equal. Instead, they will only talk to you when they're around their friends and other people. They will only show you respect when it benefits them. When you finally stand up to them and call them out for their bullshit, they will use your stutter against you. You won't benefit from that because you didn't win. You just fed their ego. If you are a person who encounters people that treat you like a joke just because you stutter, ignore them. The only reason they're making fun of your stutter is because they're insecure about themselves. They can't stand the fact that you are able to live in your truth. They can't understand the fact that you are being something that they will never be: Authentic. Don't give those Narcassists a reaction even if they make fun of your stutter because they will continue to do the same thing they've been doing for the past few years. Do something that they aren't doing, Grow. Practice Your speech strategies and embrace your stutter. If something helps you stutter less, focus on that. Be the Change That You Wanna see. And those narcs are gonna still be around when you're in your growing phase and you are gonna be tempted to wanna show off your growth but don't. It's a waste of energy. You should be wanting to speak for yourself, not others. Just live your life and they will disappear. Thank you for reading this, I hope you've been motivated.

Hello everyone, I am a man (29) with mild stuttering blocks, sometimes I can hide them easily to the point that you think I don't have a stutter, but when I have a long conversation obviously people notice the short pauses in my speech.

I feel that this block extends to my sexual expression with life and the connection with pleasure, I don't know how to explain it, since even though I have had good sexual relations, I don't feel totally myself deep down as a man, as if something were missing, like an engine that was halfway running.

I am an attractive man, but when I have the blocks, no matter how small they are, it makes me feel out of place with myself, and not being able to say exactly what you want in the way you want makes it difficult to create sexual attraction (even if I am very good at hiding it). I know that there are women who don't care, but depending only on that makes me feel disadvantaged and somewhat limited.

Inside, I know that I am another guy who is different from the one who manifests on the outside.

They have the same feelings

I feel sorry for my English

Hello,

I just moved to Germany and found out that there is a card for disabled persons (any kind of disability). So I was just wondering if anyone lives here and has this card because of the stuttering? Does our stuttering even count as disability here in Germany? Could you please share any information about this?
Thank you very much.

I've given so much opportunities yet I decided to let it go because of my internal fear.

I am a final year student doing masters.I am happy with my steady progress and when I compare myself now from 2yrs ago I've came a long way. My mental health is good now.

But I still suck! Made some good friends who introduced me to their friends and attended events which was out of my comfort zone. But when I met with those peoples I can't even greet them. They might be thinking I am some rude guy! I felt awkward in those situations where I know them, even talked with them and now I can't even say hi. I always thought about bad outcomes. What if they ignore me, am I looking dumb, why they didn't greet me first cuz maybe they don't like me. I don't know when to start taking action!

The thing that infuriates me the most about my stutter is how inconsistent it is. It's just so ridiculous to me that my brain will randomly gift me with near perfect fluency and at other times makes it so that uttering a single word is damn near impossible. Like, what in the actual fuck.

Over the years I've tried identifying variables that can either mitigate or exacerbate my stutter, and surprisingly enough, I've been completely unsuccessful in identifying even one. I can eat nothing but junk food, get inadequate sleep, scroll Instagram for hours, and just do the unhealthiest shit one can think of and I'll speak like a poet. Other times I'll eat healthy, exercise, get sufficient sleep, drink lots of water, and I'll stutter uncontrollably like I've just been lobotomized in an early 1900s mental asylum. Confusing is an understatement, this shit is puzzling, perplexing, baffling, and most of all, bewildering.

truth be told, I'd rather my stutter be perpetually bad than dealing with the constant fluctuations because then at least I'd be liberated from this dreadful uncertainty that creeps up every time I get ready to talk.

This famed YouTube show features many disabled people and stutterers!

The premise: names are pulled from a bucket to do 60 seconds of live comedy. They are then ROASTED and critiqued by a panel of famous comedians.

Runtime 2.3 hours New episodes every Monday night 100+ episodes 11 years running

Hey everyone! For anyone who was at the Connecting Voices Conference hosted by the Canadian Stuttering Association this past weekend, I was thinking about creating a Discord, Slack or WhatsApp channel for everyone to stay connected. Fell free to dm me or comment below if you would like to be a part of it (attendees only).

I graduated college a few years ago. Now, I'm working at job that makes decent money. It really just kind of happened - I didn't really think too much on it, as I just had a lot of fun along the way with great people. I didn't think of my stutter as a barrier to where I am right now - only as a barrier in conversations at the moment

Recently, I've been thinking if I will be doing this job as my career. With these thoughts, I remembered the limitations that I put on myself when I was in highschool, thinking, "There is no way I'm gonna be a public speaker or a lawyer... I will stutter my ass off". Looking at today, I am neither of those things. So, when I entered college... I still chose to major what was interesting, but I feel like those small little steps that I took along the way were guided by my fear of stuttering.

To put it simply, would my job/career been drastically different if I never had a fluency disorder? For me, I would say yes. Knowing my personality right now, I probably would've done something more in a leadership position - somewhere I could hold a lot of power with my words.

Enough of me... how about you? Do you think your adult life right now was influenced by fluency disorder? Do you think you would've been in a different spot in life if you never had it?

View Poll

I feel so small and impotent. so many questions I have not asked, conversations and debates in which I have not participated for fear of making a fool of myself. I have developed a personality that is complacent, phony and just trying to come off as well as possible to make up for a lack of charisma and substance. I have not fought for my ideas or values, I have preferred to run away and avoid conflict rather than defend my convictions and what makes me live moderately happy.

I am not ready for reality, I am a child in an increasingly worn out body, I have not even realized that I am no longer a teenager, time has flown by and yet I have not evolved and I am closer to the end of my life. I am burdened by not being able to get what I want, not even for the benefit of my loved ones. I have already discarded having the confidence and attractiveness to conquer a girl that I can fall in love with or at least feel attraction, and I had already assumed a 'monastic' life, but at least I had the hope of being useful and valuable to my friends and family. every day I see myself smaller and less capable. I can't even have a normal conversation with anyone, my face only shows ridiculous grimaces, devoid of human expression, and my voice is weak and tremulous. Sometimes I would rather be mute than what I am.