Sunday, 22 June 2008

Fluent periods?


I, fortunately, am one of those stutterers who manages to get somewhat fluent periods. During group therapy sessions I have met fellow stutterers who have a much more difficult time expressing their thoughts than I do. I, even as a stutterer, cannot quite imagine how bad that would be to go one sentence without stuttering on every syllable.

However, that's not the reason for my post. 10 days ago or so I went back to my home in Germany from university (which is in England). And let's just say I've noticed something quite interesting. Back in England I would think about my stutter, its constraints, its possible effects on the people surrounding me, the role it plays etc. I would also stutter quite often, at least once every two sentences, usually once a sentence. Which is originally why I decided to create this blog, partially as it was a good place for me to vent. Now! I'm back home and I'm noticing that I stutter maybe once every six sentences or so. Now this is most surprising to me because:

  1. I usually stutter more at home with my parents than with my friends.
  2. I'm stuttering less with my parents than with my friends back in England.
  3. This is the most fluent I've been in easily over a year.

I can't quite understand why, but this all kind of struck me last night when I was meeting some old friends and I had a block. The first one in hours. Hours! And I got over that block in no time! Shortly after the block my stutter came to my attention and I stammered the next sentence out but after that it was fine. Possible reasons?

  • Was in a comfortable situation.
  • I was smoking shisha (hookah) at the time which relaxes me so maybe that? I wasn't drinking alcohol though.
  • Not thinking about my stutter as much.
  • For you spiritualists out there, it was a full mooon! oooOOOooo

Would love to hear any of your thoughts as to why I'm so fluent all of a sudden or if you've had similar encouters.

P.S. This isn't like a period where I stutter less than usual, this is quite a drastic improvement - or least I like to think so.

1 comment:

Renee said...

This is more about your whole blog than this post... I don't stutter much anymore. I'm a grad student, and did two fluent lectures a day for a room of freshmen, three times per week for a whole year.

But can I say my name or answer the phone? No (sigh). Stress makes things worse too. Anyway, nice blog!