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From: Peter Louw
Date: 02 Oct 2012
Time: 04:45:39 -0500
Remote Name: 196.23.48.58
Many thanks for an insightful article, much appreciated. PCP, Kelly and Fransella do make a lot of sense. I'm just wondering to what extent increased stress levels also play a role in relapse. By "stress" I don't just mean psychological anxiety, but also physiological stress. For instance, I'm usually quite fluent in most situations, partly thanks to fluency shaping. But last week my fluency deteriorated markedly in a time when I had to stay in bed due to a back problem and took medication. I could feel that my stress levels were high, and I found it very difficult to use my fluency technique while so stressed. As soon as my back problems subsided my speech control also improved. Personally I feel that not enough is done to examine the relationship between stress (in all its many forms, as researched by the Canadian biologist Hans Selye) and stuttering. Regarding therapy: the problem which you identified so expertly is reflected by e.g. our terminology, such as "PWS" (Person Who Stutters), "stutterer" etc. Maybe a step in the right direction would be to create the term "PWOS" (Person Who Occasionally Stutters) for people who are improving? That would be an intermediate step from "PWS" to "PWSS" (Person Who Seldomly Stutters). If we start to think about ourselves as "people who occasionally stutter" it would be a step away from stuttering and toward improved fluency. Personally I make a point of seeing myself as a person who occasionally stutters. Many thanks again for your very valuable article.