My friends call me “Micky”, and I’m from Minneapolis, USA. I’m 52 years old. I’m on the police force. I started to stutter at a very young age. I have taken many speech therapies without much success. Now that I’m a police officer, effective and quick communication is essential, but I felt that my stuttering was holding me back from getting promoted. So, I decided to do something about it.
One day, I discovered Lee. G. Lovett’s “Stuttering & Anxiety Self-Cures book” and it changed my life. I read the book and it gave me hope. I, immediately signed up as a “Stuttering plan member”. I was coached by Coach Prathusha and she helped me in understanding the concepts better. I did my home work diligently. I read using the crutches, every day for at least 30 minutes. I also did my mind training twice a day. Initially, I found it hard to use the crutches every time, but later when I consciously focused on the crutches while speaking, my speech gradually improved boosting my confidence. My bad incidents reduced drastically and I was able to speak fluently in front of my colleagues. I was so happy that I was able to finally put an end to stuttering.
Although, I was fluent most of the times, I found it really hard to consciously use the crutches under pressure. I would completely go blank when stressed, and I would forget to use the crutches. My old fears came up shattering my confidence but I never gave up. I was a good speech cop and would stop speaking when a fear/threat came up. My favourite crutches are word linkage and speaking like a crutch King because these crutches smoothened my choppy speech.
I still have to practice the crutches and do my ASTs 2X daily, as it takes a while to build a habit. But I’m determined to do it. I also need to expand my comfort zone by 10%, week after week. I would like to thank Coach Lee for writing such an amazing book. This has truly changed my life and has given me hope. I highly recommend this book to every stutterer in this world. And it is made much easier by the videos, courses, etc. that you will find at SAC at https://speechanxiety.com.
MICKY, Minneapolis, April 2021