A wide angle view of therapy..

This is a report from Yahoo/IPWS:

I'm really sorry to hear that sh-----. Even i had paid 5G to AH (don't want to name the guy in Pune) for therapy, and saying that i was disappointed would be an understatement. I've attended speech therapy at various stages of my life, and the only benefit i can say that i've gotten out of it is the awareness and knowledge of the various techniques which can be used when you block. The worst thing about SLP's is that they address stuttering as a learned behavior which can be cured (double underline) if we practice the techniques. Almost every private SLPs want to make money out of it coz they know that we're in desperate look out for a quick fix and can give any amount to achieve that, realistic or not, and they take advantage of this. I'm really shocked to know that the program you've enrolled have risen their price to a whopping 12.5G. Man, this is a felony. Do they promise that they'll cure you as well after attending their program ??

I would want everyone who's a member of this forum and are ignorant about the fact that there is no cure for stuttering, to know that anyone who claims that they have a cure for stuttering are lying. They are nothing less than money snatchers/robbers.

Just for an experience, if you want to go for speech therapy then go to AIISH (all india institute for speech and hearing) located at mysore. They charge a nominal amount of Rs.30. Yes you have aspiring students of speech therapy taking your sessions and you might meet up 3-4 different therapists taking your sessions there but be rest assured that you'll get to know almost everything there is to know about speech therapy there. Its better to spend a nominal amount of Rs.30 there than spending 5G-12G elsewhere.

I've myself wasted a lot of money on speech therapy and i'm telling this from my own experience. Its only you who can make your speech consistent. Fluency should never be the goal instead it should be a by-product of the psychological changes you make in you.

The first step towards achieving that goal is acceptance and non-avoidance. The second step is desensitization. The third step is eliminating your secondaries, if you have any.

Don't feel ashamed/embarrassed when you stutter, develop a thick skin and have the courage to take others reactions whether its +ve or -ve, it doesn't matter. Don't let your self-esteem go down just because you've stumbled upon a word. Develop this habit of forgive and forget, it even applies to your own self not only others. And the first and foremost thing is to learn to say no. Just because you stutter doesn't mean that you should take shit from anybody. It doesn't mean that you're not entitled to put your choices in front. Just because we stutter we have this habit of feeling guilty after saying no to a certain thing. We think that the other guy is doing a favor just by being your friend and you should agree to whatever he says. Well, saying no is your birth right and even you cannot take this right away from you. Don't substitute words, if you feel like stammering the word out then do it. This way you learn to stop avoiding words, accepting your stammer and desensitizing yourself.

I'm attending an on going workshop conducted by TISA and i found it very fruitful. I would suggest everyone especially who know about stuttering to take the initiative & come forward and help their fellow stammers to learn about stammering. In India i've seen, due to ignorance, we ourselves do not know much about stuttering. And since we don't know about stuttering ourselves we take every crap what the fluent people say about us. And we in turn start blaming ourselves for everything. We start hating ourselves for that. If somebody asks why do you stutter ? then we don't have an answer for that. Just because we cannot define our problem the people take advantage of that and start telling you their viewpoints which are always wrong because they don't know shit about stuttering. Sorry for using so many terms which may offend a few but this is how i feel and it makes me go bonkers coz i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'd urge each and everyone of us to learn to define their stutter. If you say that its all there in the head ourselves and we say that its a learned behavior what do you expect the reaction from general mass. They'll think that stammering is curable, and its the fault of the PWS that he still stammers coz speaking for them is like walking and eating. And they feel that the other guy lacks in confidence or has a complex of sort that is why he has a problem in talking. they'll never realize what we go through inside when we have a block. For heaven's sake please don't give such answers so that others get a chance to point fingers at you.

It has been scientifically proven that stuttering is genetic and it affects 1% of population in every culture. They have same psychological issues, situations, problems in their daily lives. The only difference is in the way we stammer coz we're different individuals. we think differently and we've developed our own strategies to cope up with our stutter, that is why it sounds different but at the core level the problem is same.

Its only us who complicate our stuttering. Stuttering is a by-product of the mis-synchronization of our motor nerves with the different organs involved in producing the speech. In a way its all there in the head but its not our fault, we're built this way. the only thing which we can do is to deal with it by learning the right coping up mechanisms and so that even if we stutter, we stutter the right way. That is why practice is very important. The Psychological factors involved in stuttering makes it look even worse that it actually is so there is this need of a mentality shift or changing the stuttering mindset.

I got this opportunity of talking to John Harrison, and i agree with his hexagon model which makes our speech look more complicated but the point where he dismisses the genetic aspect of stuttering is where i disagree with him.

For me stuttering is basically a neural flaw in our brain and our experience to understand and constructing different coping up mechanisms to deal with it makes it look more complicated. That is why you find stuttering in varying degree in PWS. That's a result of the way they've psychologically programed their brain to respond to everytime they anticipate a block. To put it in simple words, stuttering is a neuropsychological disorder.

I realize that this is quite a big post and i know i've rambled on in few places :o) but i wanted to make a point here. Thanks for reading my post.

Vivek