A Stutterers Perspective on Speaking
I am a stutterer. You may know someone who stutters. Perhaps a relative or a coworker. You've probably tried giving them advice or telling them something useful or encouraging like, "You stutter? I barely noticed." Or,
"You know, Mel Tillis is a stutterer." Just so you know, that doesn't help.
I wrote this mainly to vent, but also to inform my non-stuttering friends as to what's going on in my head when they ask why I'm not more outgoing or why I don't answer the phone more. (By the way, phones are torture devices to stutterers.)
Of course, I can't speak for all stutterers. There are different kinds. We all have different weaknesses, different strengths. I usually don't stutter when I'm reading something, or when I'm talking to an answering machine. I've met stutterers who are worse when they have to talk to a machine rather than a real person. But there are often commonalities, like not being able to say one's own name. And of course, stuttering while singing is impossible. When I tell someone that last part, their response is usually something like, "So, why don't you sing all the time?" To which I simply roll my eyes.
I wrote this mainly to vent, but also to inform my non-stuttering friends as to what's going on in my head when they ask why I'm not more outgoing or why I don't answer the phone more. (By the way, phones are torture devices to stutterers.)
Of course, I can't speak for all stutterers. There are different kinds. We all have different weaknesses, different strengths. I usually don't stutter when I'm reading something, or when I'm talking to an answering machine. I've met stutterers who are worse when they have to talk to a machine rather than a real person. But there are often commonalities, like not being able to say one's own name. And of course, stuttering while singing is impossible. When I tell someone that last part, their response is usually something like, "So, why don't you sing all the time?" To which I simply roll my eyes.
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Comments
I stutter, too, and this article really made me realize how much in common stutterers must have. The bit about not speaking on topics of importance and playing dumb are what I do, every day. It's torture because all I want to do is talk. I just wrote an article very similar to this on A.C., too!
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