[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Irene Bullard
Date: 12 Oct 2011
Time: 10:13:09 -0500
Remote Name: 76.214.57.74
Thanks for your comments and great questions. As what I would call an extremely severe stutter in my youth and young adulthood, that would have been the most difficult time in dealing with my stuttering, because it took a long time to deal with fears, shame and guilt of stuttering. Of course those feelings still arise occassionally, but I can better deal with them now. But being a speech pathologist who stuttered also increased the communicative pressure. Being diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia did not change so much with the diagnosis of it, but changed with the onset of it. The diagnosis came later. Initiallly, the voice giving out made it very difficult to manage both the stuttering and the voice problem. I thought I had to push harder to keep the voice going but had to have easier onsets and continuity of the voice. This was a tough juggling act. In retrospect, I see this was the wrong tactic. Pushing to get the voice to keep going, I believe, only increased the vocal spasms. Because these 2 different disorders occur concurrently I can not manage both in distinct ways. Besides it is/was sometimes difficult to tell if the dysfluencies were caused by the voice disorder or the stuttering. It is even harder for the clinician to distinguish the two. One expert, in voice and fluency disorders, that I saw felt that the dysfluencies were typical of stuttering while the ENT, specializing in voice disorders, at the same facility thought it was SD. Being afraid of botox at that time I decided to go with the speech pathologist's view. Now when the dyfluencies increase I know it is time to go back for another botox shot. Through use of easy onsets and breating techniques I can best manage both. Anxieties of course make both more difficult to manage. Relaxing of the shoulder muscles, as I learned from a physical therapist treating a broken bone in my shoulder, I found relaxes throat and neck muscles making managing both easier. Hunching of the shoulders seems to be a natural tendency of mine when anxious. It is much more effective than any head/neck exercises I was trained to use in therapy when I was younger. It also tends to be effective when I get tension headachs at the base of my skull. I realize this is getting off the subject but I think it is an interesting component of my whole journey. Further questions or need for clarity regarding this answer are most welcome.