I have a possible theory on curing my stuttering, need help testing it out
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I have a possible theory on curing my stuttering, need help testing it out Hi, I'm 28 years old, I have been stuttering since elementary school. I didn't stutter as a kid until I played with a neighbor kid for some time who stuttered very severely. I'm a Chinese that lives in China, but I speak English too. When I speak English I stutter more badly than I speak Mandarin. There are lot more English words that blocks than there are Chinese ones for me. I'm a mild stutter. I don't stutter when I'm alone. When I speak, I do word substitution, and I'm sometimes able to speak some of the blocking words if I'm too into the conversation forgetting I'm a stutter or when I'm really calm (very rarely). Let me tell the story on how I have a possible theory on curing my stuttering. I was trying to ask my mom a trivia question the other day. She was in her room. The door was closed. I decided to just yell. But as soon as I wanted to speak, I realized the question I was going ask contained a few blocking words. I got nervous. I couldn't yell. The blocking words weren't the first words, but I had the urge to speak fluently once I start. So once I was sure I was going to block at the middle, I couldn't speak. I stood there for about 30 seconds, trying to yell but couldn't, being afraid to stutter. Then I remembered i wouldn't stutter when I was alone. So I did something new, I whispered the question. That was easy. Then I raised my voice a little, where I thought she shouldn't be able to hear me but was not absolutely sure. I got a little nervous, but was able to ask fluently. Then I did the brave thing, I raised my voice again where I was pretty sure she were going to hear it. I stuttered a bit (I usually stutter less severely than I imagined I would be). Then the wonderful thing happened, she didn't respond. I was absolutely sure she was in the room, because I saw her walking into it. So I asked again, with the same voice, I didn't stutter, but was still super nervous. She still didn't respond. So I asked yet again. This time, I wasn't that nervous, but still no respond. It turned out, she was watching videos wearing earpods. She couldn't hear me. I didn't know that then, and didn't care, I just kept asking the same question again and again. I got calmer and calmer, to the point that I was bored. I felt that if she walked out that room right now, and stared me in the eyes, I could ask her without stuttering. So I had my epiphany: the way to cure stuttering is to repeatedly say the words that you are afraid of in a situation that makes you nervous (usually it means to interact with other people. I tried mirror, didn't work for me. I won't stutter talking to a mirror), until you get comfortable with it. But the story isn't finished yet. Later that day (about a couple of hours later), I wanted to test if I was really able to ask this question without stuttering. At that time, she was near me in the house. I tried to ask that question again. In the middle of it, I did word substitution. I was afraid again. But I had this strong sense of feeling that if I could repeatedly asked a few times again, I wouldn't be afraid of it. I wouldn't stutter. So I think to really cure my stuttering, I need to find the blocking words, and the situations where i'm mostly likely to stutter, repeatedly say those words in these situations, and repeat this whole process once every while, until I won't stutter on these words in these situations. I couldn't test this theory out in a real life situation. It's too weird. I'm not that brave yet. So I want to start small. I would like to ask some redditors here, if you are willing to add me on skype. We will do some video chatting (audio chatting is fine too, but I suspect it won't be as effective). I will repeated say some sentences containing the blocking words to you, until I won't stutter, and I will ask you to do the same. If I manage to gather enough friends, maybe we can do some group video calls. You actually don't have to skype with me, if you are lucky enough to have some close friends that you are not afraid of being awkward in front them, but I still would like to talk with your about your experience. I hope this won't sound like some advertisement. I have no intention to charge money or recommend you to buy something or anything like that while we talk. I simply want to get rid of my stuttering. I think if I'm brave enough, I can. Would you like to help me out? My skype name is "t.tocs". Thank you.