Stuttering or stammering, as it sometimes referred to, is a speech impediment which affects around one percent of the UK population. I just happened to be a part of these one percent as I had a stutter for around eighteen years ago. In this article I will be writing about how the stutter affected my life and about the forms of treatment that are available.
The affects of stuttering
So what affect did having a stutter have on my life? I could answer this question with just one word - Huge.
Yes, the impact was massive. Not being able to read out aloud in class, order drinks at a bar, speak on the telephone, these are just three from of a large list of what many people see as simple tasks, that I just found so difficult to complete.
I hated being unable to converse fluently. My confidence became badly dented and I soon became tired of people laughing at me behind my back and at the way people would look at me; like I was some kind of freak.
I had developed the stutter when I was four years of age and by the age of fourteen I had become some what of a loner. Strangely enough I could talk perfectly fluently when speaking to myself.
Treatments for stuttering
For whatever reason, I found the traditional speech therapy to be a waste of time. The speech therapists had no real understanding as what I was going through or how the stutter made me feel, how could they, they had never had a stutter?
These days there are many different forms of stuttering therapy. These include hypnosis, a speech course and also self-help type therapies in the form of an audio book, a dvd or an e-book.
I am pleased to report that I finally overcame my own stutter thirteen years ago, at the age of twenty-two. I have not looked back since!
Posts
