PWSS

Vincent, Florida

Some say that stuttering can’t be stopped.  They’re wrong. This is Vincent writing. I’m 42 and live in Florida.  I was a situational stutterer (anxiety stutterer) until recently.

Now that I have taken control of my speech, I am in a new chapter of my life with a new job and new challenges having to speak more to people every day and doing good (IT Product Manager). I stopped succumbing to stuttering!  I thank Lee for his kind help and recommendations which I draw upon every day.  I will do more Skypes for maintenance and updates.  Lee’s Happiness book is also very helpful with stuttering.  I gave it, and his Stuttering book 5 Star reviews on Amazon Kindle ebooks. I strongly recommend both of them to stutterers.

I started stuttering at age seven.  It began in school. The more that I was called upon to talk, the more I stuttered.  Kids can be cruel to stutterers, and I was no exception. As an adult, the problem has still plagued me, especially at work and when dealing with authority figures and making presentations.  I manage an internet company. As the years have passed, my stuttering has continued to bother me, hitting me at the worst possible times and humiliating me.

I decided to attack the problem head on.  I went on line and looked for books that might help.  I found Lee Lovett’s Stuttering & Anxiety Self-Cures, which I devoured and loved.  By the time that I had finished it, my stuttering had decreased by 25%.  I then emailed Lee and began Skyping. This helped me understand even more that the problem was in my conscious mind and could be fixed.  Just knowing that there was in fact a way to avoid stuttering was such a help. I read aloud, I did the auto suggestions daily and I practiced the Crutches.  All of it helped. I then read John Harrison’s book Redefining Stuttering (synopsis here: http://www.masteringstuttering.com/recovery-stuttering.htm), which I also loved, as it emphasized the importance of not viewing “important” people as better than I am; this realization decreases pressure when you talk to others.

At this point, I haven’t stuttered noticeably in over a month, and I now know that I can avoid any stutter.  I don’t even need to use Lee’s crutches very often now, because I am simply focusing on my ideas, not my words, and concentrating on the emotions that I want my ideas to convey.  I try very hard NOT to think about any words. This works!

I want to thank Lee and Speech Anxiety Anonymous for providing free coaching to so many PWS.  It’s a great service to stutterers, and I urge all PWS to take advantage of it.

Vincent, Florida, August 2018

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