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From: Mike Hughes
Date: 11 Oct 2004
Time: 10:23:33 -0500
Remote Name: 69.195.243.125
You should tell them that, by focusing on the negative, they are reinforcing their stuttering. They must train themselves to be alert for any negative thoughts and immediately replace them with something - anything - that does not reinforce the stuttering. I can remember having a severe stuttering episode early in the morning and then remembering it all day long. My listener had already forgotten it (if he had even noticed it), but I kept it in mind all day by remembering the negatives about it. Finally, I learned to dismiss the stuttering and think about something else: Where are my car keys? What's on TV later tonight? Can I still do cube roots of numbers in my head? Making a mental list of Prime Numbers... anything that took the stuttering off the table. People are like a jigsaw puzzle with hundreds of pieces. Too often we stutterers see only the one piece that represents stuttering rather than the 999 pieces that represent who we truly are. As long as we focus on the stuttering - as long as we think that stuttering can be "cured" - we are going to continue to stutter. The solution?... "Remember to forget to stutter."