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From: Gunars K. Neiders, Psy.D.
Date: 15 Oct 2012
Time: 14:38:51 -0500
Remote Name: 98.247.240.81
You wrote,"As long as I knew it was okay to stutter, my stutter became less and less severe (and less irritating for myself)." I find more and more evidence that the attitude toward stuttering is the key to stuttering recovery. I believe that a good therapist (probably an CBT/REBT therapist) could teach this well, could demonstrate exercises of how to not demand perfect speech, but to loverlearn that stuttering is okay. Nothing awful about it! It does not make you a less worthwhile person. But thinking habits are harder to break than physical habits. Try to open constantly the door with your left (or non preferred hand) for a whole day. Not possible for most of the persons. So even though we mouth that "stuttering is ok", we slide back into "I must impress this person", or "yesterday I spoke without stuttering so I have to talk today perfectly". It may not be conscious, but somewhere in the amygdala there lurks a thought that stuttering is awful. It takes a lifetime of occasional voluntary pseudo stuttering to keep the fear of stuttering at bay.