postr/StutterNovember 4, 2021

Stutter is getting worse, looking for advice

7 points4 commentsView on Reddit →

Content

Stutter is getting worse, looking for advice Heya! I’ve been lurking this sub for a while on my main account and have wanted to post this for a bit. I’m 15 going on 16, and have been developing problems with my speech from around the age of 9. (Sorry if that violates rule 7, I just think it’s easier to add that in for the rest of this to make sense.) When I first started experiencing problems it was just the occasional block on words, usually when I was stressed, and I was relatively fine when talking to people I was comfortable with like my parents/friends, but since then it’s gotten a lot worse. I asked my parents for Speech Therapy at about 12/13, but I only ended up having about about five or six sessions over the span of a few months, all of which happened to be on my better speaking days. The consensus the therapists gave was that I just got nervous when speaking in class. (Even though that couldn’t be further from the truth, I used to love sharing my ideas in class and to be honest, am a total teacher’s pet -) ironically, I don’t think they understood what I was trying to tell them. I have asked my parents to have speech therapy again recently, but I don’t know how seriously they’ll take it this time or if the same thing may possibly happen. For the last year, I’ve been getting really intense blocks in every situation, even if I’m completely comfortable. I was having a causal conversation with a friend a few hours ago, and I suddenly started to get blocks on half the words I was trying to say. (Though luckily this friend is really understanding and we just managed to laugh it off.) I got my covid vaccination a few days ago, and I had to write my name down for the nurses because I just couldn’t say my name. I’ve started struggling to talk around my parents, which has never happened before. I am really stressed about this, as you can probably tell lol. I’ve read that children usually grow out of stutters, but I seem to be growing into one. I don’t know what’s going on, and to be honest I’m really scared - I don’t know how much worse this is going to get. I’m going to need to do interviews for colleges and jobs soon, but have days where I can’t talk properly no matter how hard I try or how many synonyms I can quickly think of for certain words. Plus, other teenagers are relentless when it comes to this sort of thing, so that doesn’t really help. Thanks for reading my little rant, sorry if it was a little incoherent. Any advice at all is appreciated. :) Also, as a side note, google says that most stutters develop between 2 and 5, but as I said, my speech was fine up until I was around 9. Is that normal? *edit: spelling mistake

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional Experience

Subthemes

Anticipating StutteringFeared Words & NamesAvoidance & SubstitutionHiding & ConcealmentOverthinking & MonitoringAnxiety & Social Judgment

Codes (6)

repeating_oneselfsaying_name_introductionanticipationemotional_statesocial_pressuretime_pressure