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From: John Paskievich
Date: 08 Oct 2009
Time: 23:29:13 -0500
Remote Name: 24.77.216.171
Tom,Ed A stutterer's anticipatory anxiety of speaking may not result in death but it can come close. One study found that 1/3 of stutterers have experienced what Charles Van Riper called le petit mort, little death, wherein the stutterer is so traumatized that he has an out of body experience. Sport psychologists can only be of limited help because most stutterers unlike most athletes are traumatized individuals. They are traumatized to their very neurons. Joseph LeDoux and others have shown that these traumatic memories can never be totally extinguished although our reactions to these memories can be modified. Once a stutterer reaches adulthood the chances are that he will always stutter but he can learn to stutter in an easier less reactively conditioned way. Stuttering should I believe be considered and treated as a form of PSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That it isn't I find astounding.