Stuttering/Stammers

[Partizani]

I have a stutter and in life i have consistently suffered from discrimination because of this. Starting in school years i would not answer questions in class due to fear of me stuttering to now when i have to refuse public speaking. If i did stutter i would be ridiculed etc, the media however politically correct it tries to be sometimes does not take the issue of stuttering very seriously. Often characters are portayed as having a stutter to give indiciations about thier character (nervousness/indecisive) which i feel is something that seriously effects me as it gives the idea out to people that those who have stutters are funny.
What do others feel on this subject? should society work harder to accomodate our 'disability'.

[manic expression]

I've known a few people with the same "disability", and I can scarcely imagine how difficult it is when surrounded by small-minded people. One stutterer I know has a really extroverted personality and he gets along well with all sorts of people, for what it's worth.

Personally, stuttering surprises me the first few times I hear it from someone, but after that I get used to it and eventually I stop noticing altogether. As long as people give it time it's actually a complete non-issue after a few conversations. If anything, stuttering probably teaches a lot of people to be more patient listeners, which is something plenty of people could definitely use some improvement on.

PS, stutterers/stammerers are awesome, because Kenyon Martin is one...so there. One of the most decisive, fearless players in recent NBA history. Go Nets!

[johhy one two]

Excuse me for being ignorant comrade but how or why do you stutter.
Is it a nervous disposition or is it a mental thing or even a speech impediment like lisping.
I can only remember a kid having this when i was young but ive never met an adult with an obvious stutter.
Surely there must be a cure for this, i mean didn't that singer Gareth Gates have a stutter.But i think he is cured now, maybe you should look into it more.

[manic expression]

Some quick info on stuttering:

http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=17

(I had no idea Marilyn Monroe was a stutterer!)

[which doctor]

I have a mild/moderate stutter that comes and go as it pleases. It consists mostly of "blocks" in my speech, but I can nearly always anticipate them beforehand and switch out for another word, or just not say anything at all, so I'm pretty good at hiding it most the time. It doesn't bother me so much anymore, but I remember it being a pretty big deal when I was an adolescent, especially when I would have to read in front of class, kids can be pretty cruel sometimes, but all that made me into the cynical asshole I am today, so I'm okay with it. I still dread having to give presentations or talks in front of groups of people, but I talked for ~15 minutes in front of my class last week while barely stuttering. But it's not usually like that.

I went to speech therapy in elementary school when it was given by the school, and I went to a few sessions later when I was in high school, but insurance stopped paying for it or something so I quit going. It didn't do much for me anyways. I learned to click my tongue before some sounds and it works a bit, but now I have a horrible habit of clicking my tongue on the roof of my mouth before I say some words.

Anyways, I think the stigma against stuttering is pretty big. In some ways, it's the last disability left that still okay to make fun of. I don't necessarily blame other people for this, but because of the peculiar way stuttering manifests itself. It's an "invisible" disability, that is you look (and sometimes act) perfectly normal, so the person has no idea until they catch you on an off day. It gets in the way of verbal communication too, which is a pretty important thing. Imagine being completely unable to form a certain sound. Ironically, I read somewhere there's usually actually more anxiety on behalf of the listener (because they don't know how to react) than on the speaker who stutters. I don't know how much credit I give that, mostly because it can make me a nervous wreck in some instances, but that's mostly anticipatory anxiety than anxiety when I'm actually speaking.

I've seen/heard some people with really bad stutters, where they literally stutter on every single word, and have nothing but the utmost pity for. I don't have it nearly that bad as I can still communicate clearly most of the time. I don't have the statistic on my, but I know that stutterers do earn substantially less (on average) than do regular people, so discrimination is a pretty big problem, mostly because the general public doesn't really understand how stuttering works.


E
Is it a nervous disposition or is it a mental thing or even a speech impediment like lisping.
I can only remember a kid having this when i was young but ive never met an adult with an obvious stutter.
Surely there must be a cure for this, i mean didn't that singer Gareth Gates have a stutter.But i think he is cured now, maybe you should look into it more.
a.) Stuttering is a neurological condition. Of course being nervous can make it worse, but the reason you're nervous is because you know you're going to stutter. There's no consensus on exactly how stuttering works or what causes it, but the hypothesis of there being excessive dopamine in the prefrontal cortex seems to most believable to me, but I'm not really qualified to say.
b.) There's no cure for stuttering. In most people it goes away by the time they hit puberty, but if you still have it by your late teens, you can count on having it the rest of your life. The most common treatment is speech therapy, but from my experience, all it amounts to is learning a series of tricks, which may or may not work, to help you better manage your stutter.

[johhy one two]

Okay i see thank you, very interesting. I feel sorry for you now, it must very hard for you, i hope people don't take the piss out of you to much.

[Patchd]

I have a stutter and in life i have consistently suffered from discrimination because of this. Starting in school years i would not answer questions in class due to fear of me stuttering to now when i have to refuse public speaking. If i did stutter i would be ridiculed etc, the media however politically correct it tries to be sometimes does not take the issue of stuttering very seriously. Often characters are portayed as having a stutter to give indiciations about thier character (nervousness/indecisive) which i feel is something that seriously effects me as it gives the idea out to people that those who have stutters are funny.
What do others feel on this subject? should society work harder to accomodate our 'disability'.
I have a stutter too, although I've somehow managed to 'force' myself to be able to speak to a group of people without feeling uncomfortable out of annoyance that people in meetings weren't saying what was on my mind haha. Whenever I do stutter, I tend to just tell people up-front, "Sorry for taking my time mate, I have a stutter", they don't usually say anything back, kids can be cruel and I'm guessing that you faced the amount of discrimination you did because of the social environment of schools, outside of that, people are generally ok with stutters and stammers, or at least that's what I've found.

[which doctor]

kids can be cruel and I'm guessing that you faced the amount of discrimination you did because of the social environment of schools, outside of that, people are generally ok with stutters and stammers, or at least that's what I've found.
Yeah, schools are the worst. Outside of that, it's more of a misunderstanding on behalf of the listener than anything else, which I can usually excuse. The worst are the people who tell you to "slow down" or "think about what you're saying" as if their generic suggestions are really going to help at all. They make me rage sometimes.

[Patchd]

Yeah, schools are the worst. Outside of that, it's more of a misunderstanding on behalf of the listener than anything else, which I can usually excuse. The worst are the people who tell you to "slow down" or "think about what you're saying" as if their generic suggestions are really going to help at all. They make me rage sometimes.
Haha, likewise, it's a bit like the whole point of this is that I know what I want to say, I just can't fucking get the words out.

[Comrade B]

A few years ago a couple friends and I had gotten in some trouble with the police, who took exceptional delight in messing with one guy in our group who stutters more frequently when he is nervous. They ended up letting everyone else off and bringing him into holding for the night after harassing him for several hours, even though he was the only one drinking legally in our group. It should be taken as a serious form of discrimination.

[manicexpressive]

It is so frustrating when people discriminate against others over such stupid things. I mean, picking on someone because they stutter? Come on. Why? It bugs me when people do that. Whether it's weight, skin colour, hair length, one leg shorter than another, a hair lip...anything....anything like this....it's one of those things that I just feel is so stupid for people to be jerks to other people about. Some people see small differences in others and it's like they are sharks that smell blood in the water. It's so ridiculously petty. The problem is, too many of these sharks don't understand the pain that they are causing. It hurts when someone torments or discriminates against you.

[Dimentio]

I have a stutter and in life i have consistently suffered from discrimination because of this. Starting in school years i would not answer questions in class due to fear of me stuttering to now when i have to refuse public speaking. If i did stutter i would be ridiculed etc, the media however politically correct it tries to be sometimes does not take the issue of stuttering very seriously. Often characters are portayed as having a stutter to give indiciations about thier character (nervousness/indecisive) which i feel is something that seriously effects me as it gives the idea out to people that those who have stutters are funny.
What do others feel on this subject? should society work harder to accomodate our 'disability'.

I know from a wiki article I read about the late Scatman John that there are organisations for people suffering by stuttering. But I would say that a part of the discrimination faced by stutterers is instinctual and therefore more hard to get through than racial or religious discrimination. Of course, media is partially to blame because of the portrayal of people suffering from stuttering, associating it with fear. And people are afraid of people who are afraid.

I think that children should be taught to accept and tolerate stutterers and not bully them, but that society also should focus on soften the stuttering by assigning speech pedagogues to stutterers.

Also, a lot of people who are famous have been stutterers. Scatman John for example, but also the Emperor Claudius of the Roman Empire who was often labelled a cripple and an idiot. Ironically, it was the fact that his grandmother Livia suspected him to be mentally challenged which saved his life. Later, as Emperor, he was quite competent.