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Re: MAINTAINING MOTIVATION FOLLOWING FORMAL THERAPY

From: John Tetnowski
Date: 12 Oct 2006
Time: 20:37:38 -0500
Remote Name: 65.1.71.100

Comments

First of all Charlton, if you're offering to bring someone to the Bahamas to help.......I am the person to volunteer. I'll tell you where to send my ticket. Just kidding! I think that many of us have looked at stuttering and stuttering intervention over the years as a disorder or "illness" that can be "cured" or fixed. We treat it in the medical model as a disease. Go to a speech pathologist and they will "fix it ". I am starting to see stuttering intervention/recovery/rehabilitation more in the concept of self-help or self-improvement. Even though there is likely an organic cause for stuttering, it can potentially be treated or controlled as a matter of self-improvement. Let me give you an example of what I mean. If I wanted to lose a few pounds, I know how to do so. Simply eat less, eat healthier, and exercise more (I am assuming that there is no organic cause for my extra weight). I can lose weight, and I do lose weight everytime something important comes up. In other words, I lose weight before every family reunion, before every high school reunion, and any time that I will be getting together with people I haven't seen for a long time. As soon as that event is over, I am back to unhealthy eating and less exercise. The only way that I will get a lifetime of "skinniness" is when I decide to make the change for a lifetime. I will only be thin when I commit to making that change for life. It's wonderful to hear comments on how "good I look" (liars!) when I travel to one of these events. But as soon as I get back home, I reward myself with a pizza or a gallon of ice cream (for working so hard to lose the weight...and being successful at it). I know how much better I looked and fealt, but it wasn't a lifetime change....it was just a diet. I am hoping that someday I can make the change to a lifetime of improved healthiness, not just a few weeks or months of change. I know how to do it. The COST is just too high. I think that stuttering can be similar to this analogy. It is quite possible to get fluency for special events in your life....like when you need to go to the prom, or when you need to interview for a job, or when you need to say your wedding vows. If you do not want to make the change in life style, it's easy to fall back and require another "diet" of speech therapy in a few years. The successful person is the one who realizes that this is a lifelong self-improvement program. It requires self-control (at the restaurant/in speaking situations) and may require a little extra practice (at the gym/or self practice with a tape recorder, etc.). If we want to maintain change, for the sake of self-improvement, it is a lifetime commitment. Just as I am genetically wired to carry a few extra pounds, many of you may be wired to have a few extra dysfluencies. Let me add, this is not a critique. I choose to live with a few extra pounds......you may choose to live with a few extra dysfluencies. There is nothing wrong with either one of our choices. But they are OUR choices. When I choose to maintain self-control, and improve myself (not 'CURE" myself), is the time when I will become successful. I hope this makes some sense to you. Please let me know if this helps you think about stuttering and fluency in a slightly differnt manner. I look forward to your response. Good luck! By the way, I think that maintaining contact with self-help groups (where they are available) are a great help to PWS. It is always easier to diet and exercise for me when someone else is doing it with me. John Tetnowski


Last changed: 10/23/06