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From: Ken Logan
Date: 18 Oct 2012
Time: 16:49:56 -0500
Remote Name: 128.227.131.73
Great question, Pamela. The others' responses were really good. I'll just add my two cents worth (some of which is based on personal experiences with stuttering). First, the experience that you describe is, I think, one that a lot of other people experience, even folks who mostly manage stuttering very well and have reached a point of being generally "okay" with speech that is less that 100% fluent. (And, as Scott said, even folks who don't stutter experience this too: sometimes they become upset at their difficulties in performing other kinds of task.) So, in that sense, it is basically normal to occasionally feel <frustrated, anxious, annoyed {you name it!}> if things aren't going according to plan. I think a key word in the last sentence is "occasionally". It's when the reactions occur "more than occasionally” that quality of life, communication, etc. begin to suffer. I'm not sure if there's much comfort for us in that - but nonetheless most people seem to experience it like this. The other thing that I've found, and it is really just an extension of the first point, is that such reactions may simply be a sign that one "cares" at a very basic level about how the stuttering (or some other phenomenon) is unfolding. And maybe that’s a good thing. Some days, one might be in a more "care-ful" mood than others. Why? It’s an interesting question, but ultimately maybe it’s not answerable, and maybe it’s not even possible to be complete care free about it, either. For me, then, the interim question to wrestle with is a philosophical one: Can I still be satisfied with how I speak even though it doesn't always end up in the way I desire. Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now. Great question, and I’d love to hear the thoughts of others on it.