What It's like to Stutter

And How I've G-g-g-otten By

Taken from Wikipedia: Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases; and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds.

I'm not writing this for sympathy but I know that's how it'll look so I apologize in advance. I just thought people might want to get a look inside what goes on in the head of someone who can't always get the words out.

I like to go to Panchero's for lunch during a hard work day. It's a Mexican restaurant, one of those places where you walk down an assembly line telling the various cooks what to put on your creation. But I have a really hard time ordering a burrito. The word "burrito" itself is no problem, although sometimes I can get stuck on the "b" (imagine pressing your lips together to say "bee" but not being able to un-press them... they kind of get physically stuck. I avoid this sometimes by saying "urrito," because most people will hear "burrito" anyway.)

The problem comes when they ask "chicken or steak?" You see, I really want chicken. Steak on a burrito is nasty, but I've had it a few times just because eating steak is less embarrassing than trying to say "chicken." But I really want my chicken so sometimes I have to endure the embarrassment of pounding on the counter, stammering "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch," or just pointing and saying "that one."

Wikipedia: Much of what constitutes "stuttering" cannot be observed by the listener; this includes such things as sound and word fears, situational fears, anxiety, tension, self-pity, stress, shame, and a feeling of "loss of control" during speech.