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From: Tim Mackesey
Date: 11 Oct 2010
Time: 15:46:33 -0500
Remote Name: 72.152.97.2
Ed, good thoughts here. Movies have not helped (i.e., Fish Called Wanda and Smoky and the Bandit). I am a person who was laughed at, mocked, discriminated against at a job, hung up on, and asked "what's the matter did you forget your name," etc. If I take those moments and predict it will happen and I will feel humiliated when I perceive it happening, I begin 1) black and white thinking, 2) generalization, 3) mindreading, 4) personalization (Burns reference). I then trigger anticipatory anxiety in those moments and manifest the very stuttering I do not want. I HAD TO CHANGE MY REACTION TO MY STUTTERING whether there was overt reaction or I presumed it. Going into private practice forced me to face it all. I had to return calls to referral sources, introduce myself, conduct therapy, read standardized testing out loud verbatim, and so on. The catch 22 is if the pws throws up his hands and says: "there are people out there who judge me and therefore I will not speak in moments when that might happen." Is this thourough cognitive reorganization easy? No it is hard. When we think of Jack Welch, Arthur Blank, John Damon, John Stossel, and Bill Walton we can conclude they went inside themselves and said "I am more than stuttering...my vision and goals for myself are so important that I will not reflect on old hurful moments...I will persevere and speak and lead because I want that freedom so much." Darren Sproles with the Chargers is 5'7". He was told he would not get drafted. So, he had eveidence that people did not believe in him. He also stutters and dealt with that. He defied all critics. He is an NFL superstar when 'draft experts' openly dissed him in the media. Stuttering is quite an adversary. People who stutter are some of the toughest people on the planet. PWS deal with listener reactions and go on. PWS are truly remarkable.