Should we as stutters rehearse converations in our minds that we might encounter in the future?
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Should we as stutters rehearse converations in our minds that we might encounter in the future? This has been a very prominent habit of mine in past years. I put myself into a situation in my mind in the future and talk myself through what I might say. Those of us who have problems with our speech fluency probably are more inclined to do this, than others. There probably will be a variety of opinions, here about this habit. I've done some community theater acting and singing, and it's interesting to compare what happens in that kind of scenario. I never have any stuttering at all, when I'm on stage and have rehearsed my part with a sense of confidence, thinking about breath control and all the other aspects of the play. However, when it comes to daily conversations with people, my conclusion is that rehearsing the words that I might say in conversations with people actually can cause stuttering, and other kinds of gaffes or misplaced phrases. I think this is why ordinary people will also stutter at key moments - when there's a girl that they want to introduce themselves to, or when they're giving a speech in school. Studying how ordinary people give interviews, I see there how they also have moments when they shift their train of thought... or go down a course in their response that they have to then shift. They might missspeak a word and then they have to cover for it. These are points that might cause me to get flustered and block. I've come to think that this effect I'm seeing is "seams." Let me explain this. What I've seen, when I actually have rehearsed the wording of conversations I will have at some point... is that I tend to think about my approach to the conversation in fits and starts. I think it through a little bit one day, and I come back to it the next day. And every time I stop because I wasn't sure how to proceed in that type of conversation, and then the next day established how to proceed... there's a seam which comes into being, there. That can cause a stutter, or a block. This is because the thought processes were not contiguous as I was daydreaming things through, beforehand. So, the most workable thing that I've seen is to studiously avoid actually trying to come up with words to say in hypothetical conversations I will have in the future. If I feel I must consider a type of conversation, it does seem to work quite well to wish that I'll have a certain set of realizations as I talk, as to how I might discuss the matter. The fact my mind is thinking in vaguer terms makes the eventual conversation, and my approach to it, seamless. One notable exception here, is when I feel I'm going to stutter in a situation that is coming up within the next couple of minutes. Then, it does work well to figure out the order of the words and phrases I'll use to indroduce myself to the person, and to get my concern dealt with. That will prevent an embarassing moment of faltering speech. So, to sum up, I think that words and phrases should be planned out and ordered if 1. I am going to say them verbatim, for example in a play or a speech... or 2. if I am going to use them within the next five mintues. In all other cases, I've found it's best not to use words at all, when trying to think about how I will address a future hypothetical conversation.