How having a retail job helped me with my stammer.
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How having a retail job helped me with my stammer. I recently applied for and got a job in retail despite having a stammer. I had never been to an job interview before this one, and was scared shitless as I thought that I was going to stammer so much that they would just reject me and I would have to apply for other jobs. Although I stammered alot during the interview, I was given a job right there and then. I was given a job on the tills. Imagine yourself serving customers. I was scared. I felt sick thinking about what was going to happen on my first shift. I struggle asking questions, so "Would you like a bag?", or "Would you like to keep the hangers?" was going to be hell. First day comes by, I get partnered up with someone who teaches me how to work the tills. I stammer EVERY time when asking the customer "Would you like a bag?". I can literally see half the line staring at me as if I am some sort of monster. As the day goes on, I get more and more fluent, stammering occasionally and even asking more questions, such as "How is your day going?". A month goes by, and I start to enjoy working there more and I am learning about some of the customers, for example, as my supervisor checked something for me, I spoke with this lady who was visiting from Singapore and learnt about what it's like over there. I now enjoy learning about people and where they come from. I am then customer service trained. This is alot more speaking than the tills. Like before, I stammer on every single customer, then get more and more fluent. I have recently been told that I am a very hard worker, and my colleges were surprised that I have not had a job before this one, and that I was very confident when working on the tills/customer service. While doing overtime, the boss asked me what my usual hours were, and told me that I could work alot more than what I am doing atm (once a week) My stammer has lessened since started this job, and all it took was to be forced into speaking and expanding my comfort zone. I am still reading out-loud, meditating, sliding words into one another and trying to improve my stutter, but I believe that this has helped me sooo much more than simple meditation and is on par with (or even better than) reading out-loud. tl;dr Force yourself into new situations again and again. Never stop increasing your comfort zone. Thats my story, I don't know if this will help anyone, I just wanted to write and post what I have been doing the last couple of months. Thanks for reading :)