Everytime i look online about stuttering it is always men who stutters and has also overcome stuttering...Are there any girl's out there who stutter as well

Apologies if I mess this up, it’s my first time on Reddit! I have a bf with a stutter that I think results from spasms in his diaphragm. He’s had it since childhood (we’re both university students) and it doesn’t sound like a “traditional” stutter so often times people don’t know what’s happening when he talks. This can result in people laughing at him which makes me see red but he ignores. I know it affects his self esteem, however- he worries constantly about not being able to get a job, is tense in social settings, hates phone calls, and can’t contribute during class (he’s a double STEM major and definitely knows the answers). His stutter affects every aspect of his life and I know he thought he’d never get a gf because of it. I love his stutter. It’s unique to him, is characteristic of his voice, and it comes out more often when he’s excited or sharing something he loves. I associate it with him being comfortable and can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried over a stuttered “I love you.” I want more than anything for him to stutter his way through “I do” to me on the altar someday. But I feel like I can’t tell him this because he hates his stutter so much and feels like it’s ruined his life. I don’t want him to feel guilty about hating it or feel like he can’t talk to me about it, but I hate lying to him and pretending that I hate such an amazing part of him. Should I tell him?

Today I decided to read out loud. It helped me a lot to understand what I read and, above all, I realized that I don't stutter. In my case, I only stutter when explaining something, when I feel nervous and sometimes the words don't come out, but if I say them in a low voice, almost like whispering, I can pronounce them, but not in a normal voice. I hope that this practice helps me and I wanted to know what other tips you would give me to improve. I know that mine is a psychological problem.

I have never met a person with stuttering like me. Today I made this reddit account to join this community and for some reason I feel accepted and comfortable for the first time in a while.

Stammering has been hell for me, it literally holds back me in life soo much. I can do so much much more, but my stammering just destroys it all. It's really annoying, fustrating and when others make jokes out of it. It's even worse, all I can do is laugh and try to land an equally hurtful joke. I sometimes want to just rip of my tongue, it's better to be mute than suffer this. When you know that you are capable of being the perfect son, the perfect student, the perfect public speaker. But this stammering just holds you back in everything.

People underplay you, they don't respect you, mock you, avoid choosing you in stuff despite you being far more talented than them. Just because you stutter. It's fustrating. Really fustrating.

Worst of all, that false sense of pity and their stupid useless advice. As if they ever had what I have.

I know this comes off as a vent, I am sorry. But I really needed to led this out.

Hello to my fellow PWS! 

My name is David and I’m the events planning coordinator of the Canadian Stuttering Association (CSA). I wanted to share with you an upcoming virtual event happening on February 9th on the connection between self-love and stuttering. It’s the first time we’ve offered one of these events for free.

This event highlights the story of a gentlemen named Don McLean whose unique and powerful story captures the transformative impact of connecting with feelings of self-love about one's stuttering. Don ran this workshop at the 2024 CSA conference in Montréal so by attending you’ll also get a sense of what our conferences are like. The discussion following the event will be led by Dr. Gerald Maguire and Tom Scharstein from the World Stuttering Network, names you may recognize, particularly Dr. Maguire who is a psychiatrist and world leader in the treatment of stuttering. 

If you’re interested, you can register (for free) at this link: https://stutter.ca/events/2025/02/lets-talk-self-love-and-stuttering-whats-connection 

If you’re on the fence about joining because you don’t want to speak on camera, you can join in the background and just listen in to the conversation and insights. We never force anyone to speak as we've been there ourselves. 

Feel free to ask any questions. The registration page for the event also has more information. Cheers and wishing you all a good day. 

-David 

Hi! I was just wondering if anyone on here has any recommendations on what to include in my workplace accommodation for my stutter. I have one for school which gets me out of presentations and some group work however in this new corporate job I want to do those things and put myself out there. Just wondering if there’s anything else that I could be missing or could be beneficial.

I’ve been wanting to get a tattoo to embrace my stuttering and show the world I don’t give a fuck if I stutter and it won’t stop me from living my life. This wasn’t an original idea by me, it was actually an idea I saw in a Reddit post somewhere in here, so kudos to whoever it was who brainstormed this.

I had a severe stutter growing up and into early adulthood. Got fluent via speech therapy in my mid 20s. Many here have read my posts here. But this isn't about me.

It's my son. He's in his late teens. He's demonstrated an ever-so-slight stutter on rare occasions. So miniscule that it was never worth mentioning or calling attention to. Not sure anyone other than a stutterer would notice.

Two weeks ago, he suffered a concussion. Since the concussion, he's had intermittent severe blocks. He had the words but couldn't get started. Or he'd start, block, and was unable to continue.

I knew exactly what to do. Wait. Wait for him to start again and proceed. To reassure him afterwards that this is a temporary condition due to the concussion. Yesterday was a better day with regards to the speech blocks.

Tagging u/Little_Acanthaceae87 for this one, as you demonstrate an academic interest in stuttering. I found it interesting that his blocks seemed so familiar to me in their presentation. As we, as PWS, often present quite differently.

Yeah I know that's the 1000th thread about this, but really I hate how stuttering is not treated seriously by society. It's always mocked in media, treated as something that will pass away or just prompts stupid advice like "Yeah just be more confident and less anxious".

This is all because people think it's something mundane and trivial when reality it's a neurological disorder. However because stuttering isn't physically visible (IE you can't possibly know someone has a stutter just by looking at them unlike some other disabilities) and it's also kind of a middle term (IE it doesn't 100% impair your senses like blindness, being mute, etc does) people just often flat out don't think it's a big deal, but we all know that's not the case.

Hey! I'm 18M from Lahore, Pakistan.

I've been thinking about socializing with like-minded people facing similar problems as me.

We can have conversations and share life experiences from good to bad, from harsh to kind, etcetera - without any fear of getting judged or mocked at and advice each other and help.

We could practice verbal presentations with each other without any pressure or stress

If I end up with multiple people reaching out to me, we'll have an Instagram group set up and we can do loads of practices with each other and alot more!

I'm excited to see what's coming, I hope it'll be a best step for us and it'll help us in the long run! Don't hesitate or shy away, you can DM me if you want to!

i

No pun intended.

I'm an adult with a speech block (essentially, I cannot speak verbally; imagine trying to run forward but encountering an immovable concrete wall that you desperately try to break through or run around, only to be halted every time).

It has absolutely destroyed my quality of life, especially my career. I have a degree in a field with plentiful jobs and years of experience under my belt. I cannot land a job when I need to, and when I do, it takes months for me to feel comfortable at work enough for my speech block to lessen in intensity (when I'm relaxed and comfortable, the block becomes more like a mesh tarp).

Nothing seems to help—therapy, breathing techniques, anxiety-reducing prescription drugs responsibly written by my doctor, etc. I haven't had a real job in almost two years, despite having multiple interviews where I received positive feedback; I left a lot on the table due to my speech block limiting what I can say in a limited amount of time.

Is there anyone out there experiencing this? I'm not sure where to turn; I'm just trying to find others like me.

I'm sorry if some parts don't make sense.

I'm currently 16 years old (M). I've had an extreme stutter for about 10 or 9 years now.

My stutter is unique. Sometimes it acts as a normal stutter, sometimes my face and my tongue act weird when I try to talk, sometimes I just can't get the word/phrase out so I just stand there like an idiot, I also very rarely talk completely normally.

Sometimes I feel closer to being mute than being able to talk, in important situations where I have to interact with someone I don't know, I decide to write on a paper because I just can't talk.

I never really understood its origin, or why it's happening.

My dad says it's because I don't focus on something before I say it. I find that to be a ridiculous guess.

I've tried the "Say it 3 times in your mind then say it out loud" thing. It failed miserably.

His argument is that I sometimes talk normally. Even I don't know why that happens.

I've always felt like there is no hope for it. My dad sometimes suggests that I stay away from my phone and laptop. I also find that to be ridiculous, I can't just avoid all technology to just talk normally.

The worst part is that sometimes he gets mad at me for it, even though it's not my fault, and I hate it more than he does.

Whenever he gets mad, he tells me that I am not paying enough attention to it, or that I should try to get rid of it somehow. The problem is that I don't even know where to start, I've tried searching about it, every resource I find is about the ordinary a-a-a e-e-e kind of stutter.

My dad is amazing. It's just this one thing that he absolutely cannot accept.

Any advice is welcome. There are more parts to the story but I can't type that much right now. If someone wants to chat I will highly appreciate that too.

Note: I'm Christian. Any advice related to God/praying will also be appreciated.

Introduction - I am 18M and I have been suffering because of my stutter since I was 5 years old. 3 years ago I reached my boiling point and put myself on a strict regime of improvement. It took me 2 years to eliminate almost all my fears of speaking. I am now the most confident and social person I have ever been. I can present in front of a crowd and read publicly better than most people I know. (I am also in the best physique of my life.) BUT... I still stutter mildly now and then. It doesn't impact my conversations at all. (I even have to mention in interviews that I still have this problem, because it has become so unnoticeable.)

BTW, I don't use any fluency-shaping techniques when speaking. They never worked for me. You may be different.

Stuttering is no longer my limiting factor in dating (I went on my first-ever date in 2024).

Stuttering is no longer my limiting factor in life (I thought this for so long).

I think all of the people in this subreddit should aim for that goal, as well. I think it is achievable for anyone with enough patience.

Here is what I did:

1. I admitted am done with waiting for the stutter to go away. Done with suffering with no end in sight. I finally talked to my parents about my problem, explained the extent to which I was in pain and asked to go to speech therapy. This started the snowball effect of improvement, don't skip this step.

2. Took speech therapy seriously - I did my exercises every day, for around 40 minutes. They trained my speech muscles to be more flexible and I also did breathing exercises, elongating my breath. I added reading aloud to my stack of exercises after a while. I also always had something to talk about with my speech therapist. A problem I had at school for example. I hid nothing. In the early months, I frequently cried, due to the accumulated trauma related to the many embarrassing moments my stutter caused. I couldn't imagine discussing my stutter - this monster of a problem - so openly with a complete stranger without breaking down in tears.

After a while, I got numb to this pain.

3. Started training a few months before starting speech therapy. Took the gym seriously, as well. The improvement in my physique was directly related to improvements in my stutter. You have to have such a "booster rocket" for your self-esteem, while you are improving your stutter. That may be different for you, not fitness like me. It may be volleyball, learning the violin or the piano, etc. Some skill that has a linear path of progression and the results of your work are clear - you put in disciplined consistent effort -> you get visible results / visible improvement. You will start thinking: "Maybe my stuttering is no different!".

4. I PRACTICED, PRACTICED, PRACTICED. I would read aloud at home 5 pages of a book per day and would do mock presentations before each real-life presentation. At first, even with all of this preparation, I still failed. With time I got better - I had a few perfect presentations here and there. This is the reason I think you have to have a "booster rocket" to succeed in speech improvement. It taught me to never give up and to delay gratification.

Now I don't really care, I am fluent and I don't practice anymore. I haven't regressed any progress, and my stutter hasn't returned. People started asking me for interview tips. ;) I began helping other stutterers privately.

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That is it, I hope this message finds you well. You matter! Your stutter can be improved! I am even proud that I stutter because it forced me to become more disciplined and discover my passion in life. You will begin to think the same way with time.

Let's turn this into a Q&A. I would be sure to answer all questions. You can also privately DM me. I would love to talk to you on Discord, anyone can add me! This is my username: viktorzashev.

Let's support each other on this journey!

Have a great day, my friend!

Life after conquering my stutter is THE BEST!!!

Is there any recommendation for a speech therapist for adult in the Chicagoland area? The places I called are so far for kids. Thank you in advance

Hi, first time posting here.

I'm 14M, (coming on 15 in a couple weeks!!) I've had a really bad stutter for as long as I can remember; I've always found myself extremely envious of everyone around me because they could talk fluently while I never could. I've always wished more than anything to not having this defect.

I dealt with a lot of mocking and outright bullying due to my stutter, all of which has led me to be really insecure and often scared to even try and speak. Due to this I also didn't make very many friends which has led me to being pretty socially inept; I can barely figure out how to have a conversation. I only have 5 friends, and even then I barely feel close to any of them besides one, a really sweet girl I recently started hanging out with more.

Meaningless ramblings aside, it is normal to feel jealous, and sometimes downright envious, of people who can speak fluently?

I want to join speech therapy to help with my stutter but idk if it works. Does it work?

I'll make this quick.

Bad stutter when youger Its much better now (59m), but still lingers.

It only occurred to me last night:

Why have you NEVER considered speach therapy?!??!!

Curious, has anyone ever gone to a speach therapist and, if so, did u feel that it was beneficial?

Have you ever felt more fluent when speaking along with someone, pronouncing the same words at the same time?

Hi everyone! I’m a 24-year-old who has been dealing with stuttering since the age of six. Last week, I had to give a final presentation in front of eight senior executives as part of my internship. I had worked so hard for this opportunity and feared that my stutter would overshadow my efforts.

So, I tried a hack I had been considering for a long time.

I’ve often noticed that I speak more fluently when saying words simultaneously with someone else. With this in mind, I recorded myself reading my presentation script and played it through an earbud while speaking along with it. The result? The audience was shocked!

Here’s how I did it:

1. Prepare your slides as usual.
2. Write your script from start to finish, aligning it with your slides.
3. Choose easy-to-pronounce words—avoid words that trigger your stutter (words that start with 'P', 'N', 'Q', 'B' or any other (depends on you)) (e.g., I replaced used with employed).
4. Add punctuation and slide-change cues in your script. I used “Ipo” as my signal to switch slides.
5. Now record the audio as per your puntuations. And by-heart the entire content. It took me about 12 hrs to by-heart the entire content with knowing puntuations. (places where I can pause). the bonus is, even if you forget things, the audio will help you remember stuff. So dont worry.
6. Put on your earbuds (wired or wireless) and practice by presenting the slides.(In the beginning of the presentation I said that I am going to use this hack and informed the audience that please ask your questions at the end of the presentation).
7. During the presentation, I played the recording in one ear because I was too loud with two earbuds and spoke along with it.

This made presenting so much easier! Even if I forgot something, the audio kept me on track. I hope it helps. Let me know if you need anything,I can share the content I prepared. Since it contains confidential and personal data, I can share it through a DM. Have a good day, my people:)

Hi everyone,

Lots of people talk about the psychological aspects of stuttering, how social anxiety and anticipation of stuttering is what leads to stuttering. People talk about working on psychological aspects, like becoming more confident and then fluency will follow. I want to provide a different perspective on this.

For many years throughout my childhood and into adulthood, I believed the same things. I believed that if I worked on myself, that If i carried myself with confidence, real or fake, that I would relieve myself of stuttering. However, whether I am feeling confident, or whether I am feeling down, I still stutter or I still fluently speak. There is no reliability in tracking how I feel and whether I stutter or not. Personally, I sometimes stutter by myself, in a group, on specific letters, with one person, with my grandmother or even with my nieces and nephews, but I can also be fluent in those same situations, on those same letters. I've given presentations where I am completely fluently, I've ordered food where I cant get a word out, and I've also ordered food when I am completely fluent. Stuttering feels like something that happens to me, rather than anxiousness and my psychology causing stuttering. Now I want to take this a few steps further. It is possible that stuttering is what led to social anxiety, and the anticipation of a future stutter, rather than social anxiety and anticipation leading to stuttering to begin with.

More importantly, the people that say "be confident", "Just relax yourself so your less anxious", "work on the words that you anticipate", are actually putting the blame on us. They are saying that there is something fundamentally wrong with us and that we need to change ourselves in order to speak fluently. I think that is not right at all. Focusing narrowly on the psychological aspects, is just that, too narrow. Moreover, many years ago, I desperately wanted to know what the hell is going on in stuttering. I went into the research and I discovered that there are things going on in the brain that occur in children and in adults that stutter. When I realized that there are things going on the brain, I felt free. I felt a weight completely lifted off my shoulders. For once, I could finally stop pointing the finger at myself. For once, I could finally forgive myself. And you can too. For me, this has been incredibly therapeutic. Not only have I stopped going round and round in circles, but I am now optimistic that there is hope that we will one day be able to address what's going on in stuttering.

Good evening my stuttering brothers, I'm a young Brazilian and I'm using an internet translator, so I apologise for any grammatical errors or inconsistencies.

But I'd like to ask you, have you tried Metronome Training? Many of you, like me, probably never even knew what it was, but I'm going to explain it to you now. First, I want to tell you about my experience with it

So, I believe I had the highest level of stuttering, the worst, I didn't stutter by repeating words, but I got stuck and had blocks all the time and had no rhythm in my speech. I'd think of a sentence and if I was lucky enough not to block on a word I'd speed up without being able to control it and nobody could understand, but most of the time I'd block and speed up like "I li------ke pave and soft drinks".

Now think of that sentence in 3X after the word "like".

After an immense disappointment, and with bad, very bad thoughts, I searched for a solution in this Sub and I say for me at least that I found it, which was the metronome

I would say that it literally saved my life, I used to block and speed up 95% of the things I said, but after 2 months and a few days of training with it, I went from 95% to 30% of blocks and with a MUCH, MUCH BETTER rhythm, I literally feel what it's like to be able to control my speech and articulation, a feeling I've never been able to experience.

Well, if you want to see the method, just search this community for the word "Toyomura" and you'll see an extremely explanatory post

And the trend is only getting better, as it strengthens certain defective areas of the brain through neuroplasticity

It's not paid for at all, you do it at home without anyone's help for 15 minutes, taking a PDF or physical book, and reading each syllable of each word to the beat of the metronome, I started at 90bpm and I'm currently at 120bpm, increasing by 4bpm a week (it's important to gradually increase the difficulty).

It's important that the volume of the metronome is loud, clear and extremely noticeable, I use one from my mobile phone, I leave it at almost maximum volume and I go into a locked room so as not to disturb anyone.

I've developed some important things that are important for the method, if you want me to send them to you, just let me know - they're very specific.

But that's it, this "nonsense" saved my life, I recommend you search for the word I said in this community to see the full study and find out why it improved and everything and everything.

Hey all, I need some outside opinions on my situation. I've narrowed my approach down to three options to prepare for a make or break presentation I need to give at work to a large group of high ranking executives at the company I work for. A bit about me is I am a lifelong stutterer. In middle school and high school I pretended to be a mute so that I could avoid talking. As an adult, I got a few jobs working retail, and I realized I could avoid stuttering if I said a specific script. But the moment I would get speech blocks while saying that script, it was no longer safe to use, and I had to find a new script to use. I don't know if that makes any sense.

I believe my stutter is a combination of anxiety, but also neurological. There have been supplements like B1 that eliminate my stutter, but they never work for long. My brain is adapting, and forces me back into my stuttering state.

I need to do all I can to prepare for this presentation or it could possibly place my job at risk. Here are my three options and I only have time to immerse myself into one:

1. Read aloud for hours every day. The past year, I read 14 novels outloud to myself and it has actually helped me some, but my 30 min a day has led to me plateauing. I have a theory that if I were to force myself to read for hours a night it might lead to improvement again. The philosophy behind this is, I can speak perfectly by myself while reading, and so I am creating new memories of me being fluent, and also growing more accustomed to my own voice. The risk here is, what if I've already reaped all the benefit from this activity and spending hours a day will lead to no greater gains

2. 30+ Hour smooth speech course that I purchased off Udemy. I won't say which one on the off chance someone thinks this is an ad. I don't know if it works, but it was on sale for just $15 and I was desperate for some help at the time. The course aims to have me speaking smoothly in 90 days, but I only have 45 days, and I don't know if I can trust the course with something so important

3. Go all in on meditation, focus on proper breathing, and do this for at least three times a day increasing the duration each time. Practically live like a monk outside of work hours, and learn the skill of calming myself on command, even if I am not in a meditative stance. I'm really not sure if this works but this is not something I've tried yet.

Out of these three options, what sounds the most reasonable? Does anyone have any experiences good or bad, with the above approaches?

I went to a group speech therapy a few years ago, and for the first time in my life, I felt thankful because I realized that my stutter is actually not that bad compared to other people's stutter. the only issue I have is that I get stuck on certain letters, it's really bad when it happens. there are certain words and letters that I have to avoid completely or pronounce in a very unnatural way (including my name & age…), because I'm physically unable to say them. It's so annoying. having to speak german in my daily life isn't very helpful either, since it's a very harsh language. I try to speak softly, which helps me, but sometimes it just doesn't work... I have also noticed that whenever I feel really happy and confident, my stutter almost fully disappears. I experienced this only once for only a few days and it was so freeing, I miss that feeling so much :(

I don't get how you guys just live with it? there was a guy in the speech therapy and introducing himself took him over 5 minutes. he couldn't talk at all and I felt so bad for him, but he seemed so happy and alive, he was even studying at one of the best universities in germany. many people there were like that, just normal, confident, working adults. I just don't get it, like, how? my stutter makes me want to kill myself. I'm still dependent on other people's help and I can't imagine myself working and having a successful career. I can't see myself ever having friends or a boyfriend, like why would anyone choose me when there are thousands and millions of healthy people? I already struggle with my insecurities and fears, and having a stutter on top of all that feels like a death sentence.

I'm extremely sensitive and scared of people's reactions, I don't want to face my fear of speaking and I wish I could run away from everything and hide forever, but I can't, I'm 24 years old and I have no other choice but to become a functioning adult. I just have absolutely no idea how to do that. how do you guys manage to live normal lives? If you had similar fears and thoughts, how did you overcome them?

I have an interview next week for library assistant position and was wondering if i should go for it. I am quiet and have social anxiety that brings on stutter.

Should I stick to more back office work?

Can anyone give me some advice on what to do?