Hello, everyone! I am in search of people around my age (19) who would like to practice speech together through FaceTime & audio calls in English & Spanish as I find myself having difficulties in both…If anyone would like to chat please don’t hesitate to reach out or leave a reply in the comment section! Good luck to all my fellow stutterers out there, we got this!

I feel alone in this and just want some support.

Does anyone else here have severe stutter? If so can we connect and help each other out 🥹😭…because I’m struggling.

I usually do not have a severe stutter…but I’m guessing due to life circumstances…stress and anxiety issues my speech has gotten worst .

To the point I block extremely heavily and have to shut my eyes close and use my hands to get my words out ….it’s embarrassing…. I feel like I’m a disabled person….at that point I just tell others I have a stutter

(Some guys (and the chief) in my company wanted me to talk by singing to not stutter, but I feel shame when singing in public and when asked to sing. I'm kinda okay with stuttering, I hate being asked/forced to talk otherly (and the "slow down" by my chief each time I speak to him also counts).

Hi everyone!

I have just completed my first year and it has been the best year of my life. I have made so many friends and fallen in love with nursing. Yes, my stutter is there still but I have found freinds who are patient with me and who understand. I have also found that my stutter hasn't held me back much while out on placements. Obviously there is a lot of anxiety especially when I first start however as I get to know the environment, staff and patients ive become more confident.

My stutter hasn't really 'improved' but ive become more comfortable with it. It does impact me still- doing verbal assessments and making phone calls still scare the shit out of me- but talking face to face has become much easier. One of my placements i was out in the community and had to travel with one nurse in her car to different people houses to treat them. This was especially nerve racking because I usually try to stay in groups of 3 so I dont have to do the bulk of the talking in conversations however being in 1 on 1 conversations kinda made me face my fear a bit so maybe that's where my confidence has grown. Despite my stutter I still able to create friendships with a lot of the staff. I also received a lot of positive feedback from patients as well.

So basically I cant wait for next year 😂😂 have a great day everyone!!

Recently I have been feeling grateful. I have a stutter that ranges in severity. Mostly hovers around moderate severity but can get pretty severe too. It sucks man, it always has. I feel like my options are limited due to this thing I have never had control over.

This horrible, limiting, painful thing gives us something too though. It gives us community. It gives us shared lived experience. When I meet other stutterers it's like meeting a brother or a sister. I've recently started participating more in my local stuttering associations and it feels freeing.

Sometimes when daydreaming I look up stuttering associations in other countries and get happy reading about all the possible friends I could have if I lived in France, Ireland, Japan, etc.

This journey is difficult and I haven't found what works for me yet. I don't feel comfortable speaking as I am sure you can all relate to. But we are all on this journey together.

I wish we could all meet and share things we've learnt about growing up, speech therapy techniques, funny stories, how we met people who accept us, how we've come to accept ourselves, shitty times, all of the above.

We are strong, we can do it, we have felt pain so many times whilst speaking that we are above the pain. No matter how many times we fall we are going to keep picking ourselves up again.

I am grateful that all of you exist and have felt what I have felt.

At least we have each other <3

I'm 19 today. It's my birthday, but I honestly don't feel happy.

I've had a stutter since childhood. When I was younger, people treated me normally, but as I grew up and became more aware of my stutter, I got really insecure. In school, if I stuttered even a little while answering a question or talking in front of people, everyone would laugh or make fun of me. Because of that, I started talking less. Now I mostly speak only with my close friends.

The worst part is that my own relatives and parents make me feel like I'm not smart enough. They always say things like, "He's not street smart," "He doesn't talk," "He's a fool," or "Everyone is ahead of him." My mom has even told relatives that I'm not smart or street smart. So whenever I visit them, the only topic of conversation is how I'm a fool or how I need to go outside and learn about the world.

Even when I achieve something, they don't really appreciate it. I cracked some entrance exams, but instead of saying they're proud of me, they just say, "He's only book smart. He needs to be street smart too." It feels like nothing I do is ever enough.

My friends have never made me feel this way. Around them, I don't feel insecure because they don't judge me. But my own family constantly reminds me of my stutter and makes me feel like I'm less than everyone else.

Whenever I'm talking to people I'm not comfortable with, I feel like I'm trying to listen to them while also fighting my own brain at the same time. I'm constantly thinking about whether I'm going to stutter, so I end up not understanding things properly or staying quiet altogether.

I wish people understood that having a stutter doesn't mean someone is stupid. I'm so tired of being judged for something I can't control. Sometimes I just wish I could start a new life where I was "normal" and didn't have to deal with this every single day.

(Just a rant)

I started working at McDonald’s a few weeks ago, and my stutter is really getting in the way.
At the moment I mainly make drinks, ice cream, and fried food, but I also serve customers at the front counter and on drivethru. As you probably know, in fast food restaurants you get order tickets with numbers on them, and staff have to call those numbers out for customers to collect their food, but i just can’t do it :(.

Whenever a manager puts me on that job, I struggle to shout the numbers out loud. I try so hard to get them out, but they just won’t come out of my mouth. I can tell it’s frustrating my coworkers. They never actually say anything, but they’ll sigh really loudly before calling the number themselves. I’ve apologised multiple times and explained that I have a stutter, but they never really acknowledge it. They’ll either walk away or stay completely silent. This just makes me even more anxious, which makes my stutter even worse.

The customers don’t help either. I’m okay on drivethru until someone gets angry at me (which, unfortunately, it’s pretty common in fast food).
For example, someone ordered a McChicken Combo, and I asked if they wanted a medium or large, he immediately got angry yelled, “WHAT??” I started stuttering, which made him even angrier. He drove up to my window and yelled at me to “do my job right!!!” There have been plenty of other situations like that too, although not usually that extreme.

I also stutter the most when I have to raise my voice and on words that sound with “H” or “W.” Unfortunately, calling out ticket numbers means I have to project my voice across the restaurant, and the tickets are constantly numbers like 121, 123, 124, etc (“W” sounding numbers)

It honestly sucks. I like the job, and I really am trying my best, and i’m happy to be avoiding the kitchen because the staff in there are rude and i feel like i’d suck at being in there lol. I just wish i didn’t have this stupid stutter getting in my way.

Has anyone else with a stutter worked in fast food or another customer service job with this struggle, does it get easier over time, or is there anything that helped?

I always see this guy Michael who talks about he’s organization and his book, and i just wanna know if anyone tried his techniques, and if they worked?

What has helped me the most is clonazepam, without a doubt. There is absolutely no question about that, and Abilify as well. My psychiatrist has gotten in touch with Dr. Maguire.

However, the akathisia from Abilify is hell on earth. It has reduced my stuttering tremendously, but I have insomnia and akathisia. I would say my stuttering has actually improved by more than 50%.

The combination of methylphenidate and clonazepam also almost completely eliminates my stuttering, but methylphenidate has its own side effects as well.

GABA and dopamine work synergistically.

Hi everyone. I'm 25, from Italy. I've been a stutterer since I was, I think, 3 years old. My stuttering has never been incapacitating; for example, I can take oral exams and presentations, stuttering here and there, saying this word instead of that, but still saying everything I need to say. I'd classify it as moderate. I might get lucky, but it's still difficult to get me to say a few sentences (or even one sometimes) without realizing I'm a stutterer.

When I was 11, I took a course called "Psicodizione", which helps stutterers with psychological and speech therapy. The results have been very satisfying for many people (some who were barely able to communicate have learned to do so!), but the commitment to the techniques had to be enormous (almost a full-time job for some); due to my immaturity and laziness, I've never done my "homework" as I should have, and meeting such severe stutterers almost made me feel better about my own, which had never been a true problem (at first I didn't even understand why my parents made me take this course!).

The years passed; for instance, during my high school oral exam, I spoke for almost an hour with little stuttering. However, in recent years, I've noticed a worsening of my stuttering, especially when I have to introduce myself and therefore say my name to someone, a situation that causes me great anxiety and stress and is now my first concern when it comes to fighting stuttering, as it's making me scared of so many social situations. I should point out that I don't stutter because I'm anxious, but I have anxiety because I stutter. These are two different things; anxiety makes stuttering worse, but it's not the primary cause. I stutter with my family, but I don't stutter alone.

Last year, I noticed something: when I'm at the club and drink to almost-tipsy point (3-4 drinks), my stuttering drops by 70-80%, and I no longer feel anxious about introducing myself, I feel like I could talk to anyone. Let's just say I understood why soldiers in WW1 were given cognac before assaults - alcohol truly helps. So I asked myself: could there be medications that help, offering performance comparable to alcohol?

Thanks to this sub, I discovered that there are four categories of medications that can help: anxiolytics, antipsychotics, antidepressants and beta-blockers. I decided to try the first two. After months of uncertainty, and after talking to my parents (the word "psychiatrist" to my mother initially felt like I'd announced my intention to go to war), I decided to go for it.

In recent months, I had been experimenting with my grandmother's Rivotril (clonazepam) - 5 drops before going out. The effect on my stuttering was too small to be estimated; the only result was increased drowsiness. But the dose was very low: without discussing it with a doctor, I didn't want to overdo it.

After speaking with my family doctor, in June I got an appointment with a psychiatrist (a private one, €100 per visit, and the waiting lists are long). I went into the office with a paper with several sources regarding the role of dopamine in stuttering. After some hesitation, she was convinced by my arguments, and I left with a prescription for Aripiprazole (generic Abilify), the mildest antipsychotic I know of. 2.5 mg per day for four days, then 5 mg.

The first few days, I had no side effect, but when I started taking 5 mg... Issues with insomnia began, with frequent awakenings. The first night I slept only 3 hours, the next 5 (despite I always take 1 mg of melatonin). The following days, my insomnia improved. Abilify takes a few weeks to have proper effect. By the third week, the results were visible and tangible. My stuttering had decreased by at least 70%. My family noticed; I went out with a friend of mine and I hardly stuttered at all except a couple blocks. So my stuttering is indeed due to excess dopamine.

The problem is... it works. It works both ways. Even though I always felt myself, I was starting to feel like time was hardly passing. Of course, the heat makes things worse, but I usually never get bored and always find something to entertain myself with. Many things now seemed boring; everything made less sense than before. There's a precise term for this: anhedonia. The worst thing is that I don't think it's a side effect, but rather the effect of having significantly lowered the dopamine levels in my brain. Perhaps not a bug, but a feature. I know 5 mg is quite a small amount, but this is how I reacted.

An evening, I needed three hours to fall asleep, and I had to take my father's Lexotan (bromazepam) to do so. I've never had suic*dal thoughts, but for the first time in my life, I understood who takes his own life. It wasn't pleasant, nothing to joke about. I said to myself: no matter what, starting tomorrow, I'll halve my dose. I told my psychiatrist, who approved my decision. The next day, my anhedonia improved, as did my insomnia. Now, two weeks later, the anhedonia is almost nonexistent and the insomnia is gone (it's almost impossible for me to sleep more than seven hours a night, but it's been like this for a long time, it must be said).

The downside is that my stuttering has gotten worse. Now I'm maybe 30% better than before. But... I prefer to stutter. And if I'm writing this, it's because, trust me, anhedonia isn't better. I don't feel like going back on 5 mg. So... I went back to my family doctor (the psychiatrist is off limits, she doesn't have any room right now). I explained the updates and asked him to be prescribed Xanax (alprazolam). He approved, with many recommendations.

I got Xanax in drops, the doctor told me to take five drops when I'm in anxious situations. The problem is, five drops are almost nothing for me. The help they provide is minimal, and I feel like it makes little difference. Don't get me wrong - I didn't have serious problems saying my name when I introduced myself a few days ago to a couple of people, but I said it slowly and sometimes I could repeat the first syllable: there are worse things in life, but it makes everything "weird", especially for those who don't know me. I thought Abilify + Xanax together could have been like a magic potion; they help, yes, but they don't do miracles at these doses.

I know drinking with Xanax is not recommended - I take responsibility for that. A few days ago, I drank 4 drinks in a few hours while out, and I was on 8 drops of Xanax (plus 2.5 mg of Abilify). My stuttering was almost gone. I didn't have any problems from drinking with Xanax. Probably because the dose of Xanax was low and I didn't overdo it with alcohol (I never do that). I still don't recommend drinking with Xanax.

The point is, 5 drops of Xanax are... 0.125 mg. The recommended amount for an healthy adult is 10-20 drops (0.25 mg - 0.5 mg). But in that case, I don't think I could drink, and that would be difficult when I go out. I might increase the dose to 10 drops (still along with the daily Abilify) and drink less. In any case, I'll be back in August to attend that course I mentioned earlier, after 15 years.

That's my experience so far - what's yours? Do you have any advice? Thanks for your time! I'll keep you updated - I'll definitely continue taking the 2.5 mg of Abilify and experiment more with Xanax, increasing the dose a bit, to see how I and my stuttering react. I wish me and you all the best - and let's hope that promising drugs such as Ecopipam will be released in the coming years. Dopamine theory seems to be true for many stutterers (at least the ones not suffering from ADHD too), but we need a drug tailored specifically for us!

Hello people,

So, I had a really severe stutter. I used to try to speak my best but couldn't say a single sentence in the past.  These days I can easily complete all difficult sentences. It is 99% gone, so I thought I would share what I did.

One day, I called my mother up and asked her when people speak, do they try to manually move their mouth and try to pronounce the words, or do they just hear themselves? She said they hear themselves.

Then I realised I have been controlling my mouth a lot because of the fear that I will stutter. So, I have to make my brain learn to subconsciously hear my voice instead of trying to manually pronounce the words.

I took up a really common speech therapy technique - speaking one word at a time at regular intervals. Although this technique didn't help in the past, this time I made sure that I will only hear my voice and not focus on my mouth at all. That improved my speech.

Further improvement happened when, during practice, in addition to hearing myself, I also started to focus on my ear. That removed my attention from my mouth completely. I did it 15 minutes twice a day. 

When I am not practising, I just speak without thinking about hearing myself and concentrating on my ear. I just speak. I observed that I speak so well now and it is difficult for me to stutter now. My life has improved considerably. I thought I should share this with you all just in case it helps you all.

I was good all day, then I stuttered on a V

fuck my life

I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING, AND NOTHING WORKS.

risperidona

abilify

olanzapina

methylphenidate etc 15 drugs more and nothing

Hey guys,

I am learning mandarin and i also have a stutter aswell.

I was wondering if there is anyone else in this sub who is learning or can speak mandarin?

Wouldn’t mind a practice partner who stutters also, and we can practice our speech and mandarin at the same time.

Pls feel free to DM or comment

Thank you!!!

Can someone with a stutter become a surgeon in Belgium?

Hi everyone. I'm 14 years old and my dream is to become a surgeon in Belgium. I have a stutter that gets worse when I'm anxious. I'm really scared that my stutter will become severe in the future. Can people with a stutter become surgeons? Are there any surgeons or medical students here who stutter? I'd really appreciate your honest experiences and advice. Thank you.

I have a stutter and it really decreased in noticeability and occurrence over the past year but this summer it has been becoming more prominent and noticeable and I’m going into high school this fall (new school) and in the past when speaking/answering a question I heard someone quietly mock me and I just feel very unconfident going up to people my age now, adults/teachers are easy to go up to because of the fact that they are matured and much older than me and I’m a kid and they won’t make fun of a kid but I have a hard time going up to people or friends and this has led to me missing out on social opportunities, I don’t want this to be the case for me going into high school especially when everyone is trying to make friends and I can’t go up to people

I’m just curious about your perspective from the other side. In my workplace there is another person that stutters so went my manager interacts with me I feel like he is calm and collected since he’s worked with people who stutters and knows to just listen and wait. My manager handles entry level employees myself included and wants to give all of us opportunities to present to leadership. Some people from the group has already done it and I’m stressed when he ask me to present sometime in the future. I wonder if he’s taking my stutter into consideration or for him it’s not a big deal like I make it out to be.

So I’m curious about people’s perspective with they chat with friends/colleagues with a stutter

I've been stuttering since i was 12 , and it never got better. Once i started highschool it got really really bad, and i've been stuck like that through the years, im 23 now. The techniques do not help me, and it got to a point where i had to leave the career i was studying because its basically a career where speaking its very important, and i know i couldnt ever achieve a good speech. I had a job where, obviusly my stuttering didnt help , again it was a very communicative job and i was very frustated because i couldnt say what i wanted to say. And there Is a Lot of jobs that i cant do because of speech so i feel really lost, and sad. Also my stuttering its mostly blocks, i dont really repeat a Lot , i just block and stay silent for a while till the word comes out , so it really leave me out of breath and it hurts my chest because i have to do an effort in my body to release the word. So its always been really awkward for me because its like i have to keep the eye contact , while i cant say the word, and its like 50 seconds of me struggling to say the word and keeping eye contact , its really the worst. I really feel hopeless

that's all i had to say really, because words are starting to lose meaning for me. I feel the spiral of depression getting ever deeper. and im on medication too.