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From: Alan Badmington (to Krista)
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Time: 15:17:37 -0500
Remote Name: 84.67.214.153
Hi Krista, Thank you for reading and responding to my paper. It’s always heartening to receive comments from SLP graduate students. Recognising the influence of my beliefs and self-image (upon my thoughts and behaviours) contributed immensely to the gains that I have enjoyed during recent years. You posed the following question, “In your article you stated that people would interupt you and ask "Why arnt you stuttering right now?" or "You should be stuttering". You said that you would feel discomfort from this, but did this cause you to stutter more? Did these questions make you forget your techniques and go back to stuttering?” Let me begin my reply by saying that I think you may have misunderstood what I wrote.:-) The above comments were NOT made by my listener(s) – they were, in fact, uttered by my own inner critic as part of my self-talk. By self-talk, I mean the endless conversations that we have with ourselves concerning what is happening in our lives at any given time. In many cases, our inner dialogue is self-critical, causing us to have doubts about the task that we are about to undertake. Our inner voice is seldom silent; it chatters away throughout the day, “You can’t do this”, “You can’t do that”, “Remember when you stuttered when ordering a burger at the drive-thru last week. You’ll probably stutter again today”. If the voice in your head isn’t supporting you, then it’s time to change it – just like we would change a CD (or in my ancient childhood, a record or a tape). :-) Our internal voice has a huge impact on what happens in our lives. It tends to relate to our most prominent thoughts. Negative dialogue can adversely affect our confidence and the subsequent outcome. On the other hand, when we speak to ourselves in a more positive manner, we are likely to experience more positive results. When I was interrupted by the negative dialogue (referred to above), I momentarily felt the discomfort and uncertainty associated with my past speaking difficulties. However, I refused to dwell upon it and continued to think positively, repeatedly telling myself that I was a confident speaker and that I could deal with whatever challenges life presented. (These are called affirmations). As I mentioned in my paper, MY dissenting inner voice became less talkative and finally fell silent. Had I paid attention to (and dwelled upon) the negative messages it was attempting to convey, it is likely that I would have fuelled my former self-doubt. I hope that this clarifies the situation. You may be interested to know that I have addressed SLP students at US universities on many occasions. I thoroughly enjoy the opportunities to share my experiences and never fail to be impressed by the enthusiasm and quality of the questions posed by those present. I truly believe that such interaction is to our mutual advantage. Krista, I should like to thank you, once again, for your valued contribution. I wish you every success with your studies. Kindest regards Alan