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From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 08 Oct 2005
Time: 11:07:53 -0500
Remote Name: 69.22.238.4
Sophie, I am so glad that you have found my paper useful. Many people in the field such as Dorvan Breitenfeldt, the founder of the Successful Stuttering Management Program (SSMP), talk about “advertising” stuttering. Advertising stuttering is basically showing and telling others that you stutter. I suggest sitting down and talking openly about your stuttering with your friends. You could open the conversation by saying something like, “I am working hard on dealing with a long term stuttering problem. I have often responded to my stuttering by trying to hide and avoid it. Now I want to challenge myself to speak openly even if I do stutter.” Do not feel obligated to tell your friends that you are using voluntary stuttering, but you may find it helpful to do so. In my opinion, the most important thing is just to talk to your friends openly about stuttering. When I first started coming out of the covert stuttering hole I had made for myself, I would tell friends that I was going to be stuttering openly and stuttering a lot for some time to come because I was working hard on trying to reduce my fear of stuttering and to control how I stuttered. Most people were very supportive, but I really had to take the time to explain to them that I had spent most of my life changing words and avoiding speaking situations. Unfortunately, some friends, a few professors, and even my girlfriend at the time thought I was just looking for attention. Being a stutterer can be very awkward and talking openly about stuttering can also be very awkward. But true friends will listen to you and try to understand. Best of luck!