Substances That Help and Hurt My Stutter (Personal Experience)

Substances That Help and Hurt My Stutter (Personal Experience) I started stuttering at 13 and have always had periods of fluency and dysfluency. Sometimes I’ll go for weeks speaking pretty fluently, only for my stutter to re-emerge. Over time, I’ve noticed certain substances and habits that seem to help or worsen my speech. I wanted to share my personal observations and see if anyone else has noticed similar effects. GOOD SUBSTANCES (for stuttering, duh): 1. 12 Hour Pseudoephedrine. Increases motivation, improves social skills, and improves speech timing significantly. 2. Amphetamines in general (legal ones only) 3. Extreme exercise (not a drug, but the impact on the body is similar to being on a drug, so I included it) NEUTRAL SUBSTANCES: 1. Psilocybin. Double edged sword for sure. 2. Nicotine. BAD SUBSTANCES: 1. Caffeine. Terrible reaction to it. Absolute worst substance for me on this list. 2. Alcohol. I lose the anxiety but retain the stutter in \~90% of cases. Trying to brute force the stutter does not work. Mixing alcohol with amphetamines seems to do the trick, though. 3. Stimulants besides amphetamines I suspect that stuttering (for some people) is an underactive noradrenergic or motor drive pathway issue. Dopamine dysregulation likely involved here. Amphetamines can act noradrenergic and motor pathways to improve this. Stuttering is varied, so this might not be the case for someone else.