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From: Beata Akerman
Date: 10 Oct 2011
Time: 05:05:15 -0500
Remote Name: 46.122.126.129
Hello, thank you for your question. No, it was not an a-ha moment. When I was 15, after 8 years of being emotionally abused by some teachers and my classmates, I almost killed myself. Because I hated myself as a person who stutters and didn't see a future for me, I decided to be perfect in any other aspects of my life. I thought if I'll look like a model, have only great grades etc. my classmates will like me and for the first time in my life I would have a friend. I know it sounds strange, but I was 15 years old then and had no friends. So I stopped eating. One night I couldn't sleep because I actually felt every bone in my body because I was so skinny and then it hit me - I will die and it is all because I don’t know how to love myself for who I’m. And I don't want to die! I promised myself if I made it through all these difficulties, someday I would become activist and I'll fight for the rights of those who stutter. After that, I never again looked for an excuses why I shouldn't or couldn't do something because I stutter, I forced myself to talk in all those situations I was afraid of. I learned how to love myself and just to be who I'm. This life-changing experience was everything but easy. I kept my promise ... few years later I created first Slovenian support group for PWS which is run by a person who stutters. I also talk about stuttering and problems of PWS in public, I’m visiting Slovenian schools, colleagues and public libraries and lecture about stuttering so I would raise awareness about stuttering, I talked about it on television and radio. So, after trying to reduce my stuttering for so many years I said to myself that it's okay to stutter. If you would like to stay in touch with me, feel free to email me. With best wishes, Beata Akerman