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From: Richard
Date: 09 Oct 2012
Time: 23:29:15 -0500
Remote Name: 68.52.199.15
Hi Ryan, I'm only fluent when I need to be. That's when I to make a speech or chair a meeting or order something. I tend to be what Van Riper calls sloppy. I don't block any longer and that's because I don't worry about stuttering. The feeling of stuttering before the stuttering talk and after were the thing I hated. If you stutter I don't have to explain those feelings. It's the thoughts of shame and fear before speaking and the feeling of shame and anger after speaking which is what I needed to get a grip of. I found by using the Van Riper method I could work on loosing the fear of stuttering by using easy stuttering that he teaches over a long period of time. Hour after hour and day after day. The first few days I hated every minute and would sometimes take cigarette breaks to re-focus my mind and calm my shattered nerves. Phone call after phone call I could see any progress. I had made over 100 in the first day and stuttered on my feared words every call. By the third and forth day Those feared words were becoming easier and I had almost stopped worrying about what other people thought of me. I then went out to shopping centres and Malls. Talking to strangers and shop assistants, ordering drinks and generally asking questions (something I feared the most). I wanted to start off with the phone so I couldn't see their faces and I could always hang up if I suffered a bad block. During week 2 I could really feel a difference and my fear and shame levels had all but gone. I could then start working on changing my stutter, so even though I do stutter the words would come out without a problem. Stuttering on purpose was not easy either, I have no problem doing it on the phone or face to face but during a speech, I find myself thinking twice about using that part of the technique, so I will simply slide on feared words when they appear. I would and still do tell people either at start of my conversation I stutter or at the end that I stammer or stutter and if their interested tell them what it was like and how bad my stutter at times was. I hope that helps Ryan, best wishes Richard