Anxiety Disorders and Stuttering

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A complex situation

From: Maggie Mitchell
Date: 10/17/03
Time: 1:10:59 AM
Remote Name: 24.197.202.60

Comments

First I would like to say that I appreciate you doing this article Larry. Very interesting read and definately makes you think about a lot of things.

One thing that jumped out at me was your comment about what are we managing: the stuttering or the social phobia. As a graduate student in speech pathology, I am just starting out learning about everything and it seems to me that it would depend on the situation. Most definately I strongly agree with what Gunar and Marie-Claude have said about treating the thought processes (RBET) as well as the stuttering. In my opinion, the social phobias/anxieties that accompany stuttering would most likely go away once the stuttering is managable. But that doesn't mean that you should only treat the stuttering behaviors. You must treat the entire person, and this includes their "stinkin' thinkin'". A person who stutters may also have these avoidant behaviors taht Darrell mentioned. Again I think that this tendancy is more likely to be connected to the stuttering and the person's encounters with stuttering than with a personality type the person was born with.

The encounters that we have definately affect our attitudes. If we associate negative feelings with the encounters, we are more likely to develop negative attitudes (anxieties, phobias, avoidance) about the stuttering. The negative attitudes about stuttering are going to further complicate the matter by giving us a reason to avoid the encounters. So where do you start, the encounters or the attitudes... why not both? Work on the whole person by treating the stuttering and the anxieties that the person may have.


Last changed: September 12, 2005