My Experiences With Cluttering

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Re: Advice

From: Joseph Dewey
Date: 22 Oct 2005
Time: 18:19:43 -0500
Remote Name: 24.10.194.97

Comments

Hi Jeff. I created the sound bite about six months ago, and this is how I sounded at my worst, which was about 10 years ago. The way that I got the recording is that I was able to simulate how my cluttering sounded. Cluttering is extremely hard to record. The books on cluttering say that as soon as a clutterer sees the clinician press "record" on the tape recorder, then the cluttering will instantly go away. David Daly suggests that the only time you will see a clutterer actually cluttering in therapy is if you walk them out to their car after the therapy session and change the subject to something not related to speech. He says that only then will the clutterer feel comfortable enough to "let go" and to clutter. David Daly also says that he combed hundreds of tapes of adult clutterers that he had in therapy and couldn't find any speech samples that really demonstrated cluttering. The only adult sample that he uses on his tape of cluttering examples is of an adult clutterer reading, and Daly shows more symptoms of cluttering than actual cluttering based on that reading sample. I mention this to show how difficult it is to get speech samples of cluttering. I think that the only real way to get a sample would be to tape record a clutterer 24 hours per day for about a month until the clutterer finally relaxes and clutters freely. I'm mentioning this because that's why I had to simulate my cluttering. Dr. St. Louis challenged me to do this simulation about a year ago, and it took a long time to figure out how to simulate it, but I finally figured it out. This is almost exactly how my cluttered speech sounds, the only difference is that usually I only clutter for 20-second increments before I get embarrassed and stop talking or someone interrupts me. Here’s the advice I would give to a clutterer: "This advice isn't going to make sense for a couple of years, but eventually it will make sense. I believe that being a clutterer is very positive. The coolest thing that I ever heard was a cluttering researcher (Weiss) who said that he thought that Winston Churchill and some other famous people were clutterers. He said that 'perhaps they succeeded because of, rather than in spite of, their cluttering.' That sentence has really inspired me, and ever since I heard it, I've been trying to figure out what the positive aspects of cluttering are. It's taken me a couple of years, and like I said, it will probably take you a couple years, too. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. Clutterers are above average intelligence. Stupid people can't clutter. This means that you’re smarter than most people even though expressing that is going to be hard for you. Also, clutterers have an above average capacity for abstract thought...this means that you can excel in the more abstract sciences like mathematics and a lot of the arts. A lot of cluttering focuses around the disrhythmia you'll probably be hearing about. One of the positive things about your disrhythmic speech, attitude, and life is that you have a very unique style. Another is that you've got an above average capacity for not caring what people what people think about you. This may be hard to see right now, especially if you've been self conscious, but when you combine your unique style with not caring what other people think, and when you fully develop that, then you can be a huge inspiration to others. Having this combination is something that most people try for years to attain, but you have it naturally. I'm trying to focus on the positive, because as you learn about cluttering and as you go through therapy it will seem like there are a lot of negatives. Therapy is important, even though you will probably end up knowing more about cluttering than your therapist by the time that you're through with it. I have to warn you that not much is known about cluttering, but within about ten years I think that there will be a lot known about cluttering. My biggest advice about the therapy is to stay in therapy. You have a speech problem, even though it will seem to you to come and go. It is going to be very hard to get to the things that are the root of the cluttering problem, even though it will be really easy to get cluttering to go away in certain situations. You'll be able to say things uncluttered and with practice months before the therapy should end. The key is to be able to use the therapy in all aspects of your life, and that will take a lot longer than just being able to speak uncluttered. A big part of what you'll need is a burning motivation to improve your speech. I was lucky since I had that almost from the first day I learned about cluttering. Maybe you'll be the same way or maybe you'll have to cultivate that motivation. The last thing I'll say is that there are people out there exactly like you, with your personality, and I'm one of them. I understand what you're going through and I understand how you think and I understand what it's like to be you. Because I understand means that you’re no longer alone." That's what I would say. Joseph


Last changed: 10/24/05