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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 10/22/01
Time: 12:03:12 PM
Remote Name: 24.4.254.203
Hi Shecoda,
I think there are several other camps in existence now. You might check on the Stuttering Home Page at www.stutteringhomepage.com or ask this question on one of the stuttering internet discussion groups such as Stutt-L where there are lots of people discussing stuttering all the time. If you want to join Stutt-L, email me at russhicks@mail.com and I'll get you started.
Regarding falling back into disfluency, yes indeed, it made it very difficult to accept my stuttering speech. Even my parents would say, "If you would just learn to use your speech controls all the time, you would be fluent." And of course I believed that too. What none of us realized, however, was how HARD that was! It ultimately proved impossible - at least for me. I also suspect it proved impossible for the vast majority of other stutterers too, and we probably always felt like failures. That may very well be the primary reason I've never been able to contact a single one of my fellow campers. They probably have always thought that THEY were the only one who failed, and the rest of us succeeded. HA! If they only knew! Thank God for the National Stuttering Association so now we can share our lives as people who are leading wonderful and successful lives - and still stutter! We can also share the lives of people who STILL feel like failures and need our help so badly. The NSA as a nationwide support group is truly a godsend!
Thanks for your interest!
Russ