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From: LH
Date: 10/18/01
Time: 10:01:54 PM
Remote Name: 24.237.150.111
Hi, Bernie. Thanks for the nice comment, and for the interesting descrption. To borrow a favorite phrase, "you are not alone" in your reluctance to discuss petite mort with other people. Nevertheless, your experience does sound like a variant on the dissociation phenomenon. You probably find yourself watching or listening to yourself as if you were observing someone else, or maybe a movie. You might want to explore this with a professional. However, I know you well enough to know that you have a good handle on your own stuttering and a great attitude, and may not be interested in doing that much work.
It seems that most therapies for dissociation include elements that resemble holistic or gestalt-based stutterig therapies. They help the person to become aware and accepting of whatever is happening during the moment of dissociation, to lose their fear of the moment and of the event or situation that triggers it, and to find a way to "go with the flow," or to stop fighting it.
Self-talk can be a powerful tool in this kind of therapy. Self-talk that is noncritical can help a person develop awareness without also developing the baggage of guilt and shame that is the real handicap in stuttering and a host of other disorders that can have a dissociative component. That's a lot easier to say than to do, and a good therapist can help a person from lapsing into old bad habits of self-crigical self-talk.
LH