postr/StutterMay 20, 2022

Ups and downs of stuttering

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Content

Ups and downs of stuttering This is my first post on this subreddit. Lately I've been really struggling with my stutter. For some background, I'm a recent(ish) college graduate who was been working as a full time engineer for a little over a year now. During my senior year of college, my speech was the best that it's ever been. I geniunely never worried about my speech and I would basically never stutter, it was amazing. When I interviewed for my job, I did amazing (speech-wise). When I started my job, my speech was doing pretty well. It seems like the longer I've been at my job, the worst my speech has gotten. Since starting, I've gotten my own place with my girlfriend and we've been doing really well. These past few weeks, it feels like my stutter has been the worst it's ever been in a very long time. I get terrified of just walking up to a coworker and asking a simple question because in my head I know I'm going to stutter. I know stuttering is practically all mental, but I just get wrapped around the axle, especially on words that start with vowels and I can feel that I'm going to stutter. I've been in speech therapy almost all my life so I know alot of different strategies on handling blocks but lately it seems like nothing works. Whenever I approach a blocking word, it feels like I'm being strangled in my neck and my entire body freezes up and flexes. I've tried relaxing, slowing down and getting steady airflow before I start speaking but it just doesn't work. Next week, a intern begins and I will be her mentor (my boss signed me up for it, knowing I could handle it). I'm supposed to walk her around and introduce her to everyone, then take her to lunch, alone. I'm terrified of just completely embarrassing myself and stumbling over every other word and her thinking I'm mentally challenged or some stupid shit like that. I just have so much anxiety and it's feels like I'm just in an infinite feedback loop of my stutter feeding of my anxiety and my anxiety feeding off my stutter. I'm sorry for the rant, but is there anyone that could offer up some advice?

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCauses & Variability

Subthemes

Anticipating StutteringFeared Words & NamesAvoidance & SubstitutionHiding & ConcealmentOverthinking & MonitoringStress & Fight/Flight

Codes (5)

intimidation_authoritysaying_name_introductionemotional_statesocial_pressuretime_pressure