Advertising Your Stutter

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Advertising for the "covert stutterer"

From: Chris Roach
Date: 10/1/03
Time: 9:26:28 PM
Remote Name: 64.12.96.198

Comments

Hey,all -- what wonderful, inspirational and incredible stories you each shared about your stuttering journey! Each was valuable and relevant -- even for us covert stutterers.

My dear friend, Russ, and I have had countless hours of discussions about disclosure and covert stuttering. I will say, Russ, that your piece on "Balance" is one of the finest representations of how most of us should live -- put stuttering into a proper balance. We in the advocacy community tend to believe that others have the same fervor and passion that we carry about speaking up about our stuttering -- but we're wrong. Others DO have passion and fervor -- but it's about their lives, their worlds, their dreams, families, etc. When we connect with them on that human level, our bond is true and our stuttering is not the only bridge we've built.

Mike, you rightfully persuade that openness and advertising is the most healthy approach. But, as you touched on, the world in which coverts have adapted to live DOES reward fluency and penalize disfluency more. The difference is that our fluency capability takes us into corners of the world that unfairly overt stutterers are often not allowed. Sadly, as you say, we make those extended trips with a lot of heavy baggage that is our choice to tote. Common sense dictates that advertising and honesty relieves us of that burden, but realty dictates that we, too, may encounter new barriers that suddenly deny us those opportunities to explore some of those corners of life. It's a tough choice -- but despite your positive posture, it IS a choice for each of us to elect for our own journey. Additional baggage versus additional adventures? I just like having a choice -- and try to aim for the balance in the middle.

Thanks to all of you again. Patti, powerful, powerful piece! Thanks. Jim, excellent illustrations of good disclosures that will find that "balanced" reception in the mainstream. Thanks for sharing.

Good start, folks.

Chris


Last changed: September 12, 2005