Support for stuttering can come in a number of different types and flavours:

Speech therapy for stuttering offered by speech and language therapists

Usually, such therapy helps a person deal with the physical aspects of stuttering; teaching a person fluency creating techniques, which can help a person stutter more easily with fewer struggles. Such methods are usually combined with approaches to help deal with negative emotions associated with stuttering.

Self-help groups

This can often involve people who stutter meeting once a month, to share experiences and learn from others how to approach stuttering, other people, and speaking situations.

Public Speaking

Although not specifically for stuttering, many people who stutter find joining a public speaking group. This can be an excellent way to speak in a supportive environment and make new friends.

Most people who join come have a common purpose, which is to improve their communication skills, and overcome their anxiety of public speaking.

Online Stuttering Help and Support

These days, a lot self-help groups have moved to the Internet world. People who stutter seek help on the World Wide Web. There are old e-mail lists which have been running for 10 years and are still going strong.

With the popularity of social media, people who stutter can join Facebook and MySpace groups, create and follow blogs, and listen to podcasts specifically for stuttering.

In addition, online stuttering programs are now becoming available to help people who stutter overcome the anxiety and fear of stuttering.

The list is endless, so why restrict to one form of help? Why not try a few, and see how they may be able to help you with your stutter. You may just be surprised with the difference it makes.

Learning to deal with stammering is to understand that there is life beyond it.

Stammering is just one small piece of the cake which makes up your whole life.

So what is beyond stammering? Well, if you find yourself feeling down at times, remember the following:

• Stammering is something you do. It isn’t who you are.

• You have a choice to see beyond your stuttering problems. For instance, it is up to you whether or not you choose to see it as a problem in the first place. What else could your stuttering mean?

• A good way to overcome feeling down is to get on with your life. Do things; perhaps visit a friend, maybe bake a cake, or take a holiday? Doing activities will help increase your confidence, and help you to enjoy other aspects which make up your life.

• Remember the times when you are or were happy, and at your best. Remind yourself that things are not always bad, and therefore, can be better.

Sometimes, all it takes is a slight shift in attitude. A “can do” view can help see beyond stammering.

Can you remember the last time you became really frustrated?

Perhaps it was at work, and you became “so frustrated” at a colleague who had behaved in a certain way, which made you feel like this.

Maybe you were aiming to achieve a planned goal, but didn’t get it right first-time, so it left you frustrated.

With any type of change, there will be times when you will make mistakes. Somebody else may want your attention for a moment, distracting you from what you are doing.

This may cause you to get annoyed. There is nothing wrong with being annoyed about things at times, as long as it doesn’t lead to further, unhelpful emotions, such as anger. Nip it in the bud. Anger isn’t going to help you cope with it any better. In fact, it will most likely make you feel worse.

Ask yourself: “Is this experience really that unbearable, or is it because it feels slightly uncomfortable?”

Remember, by not reacting in such an emotionally charged way will help keep your peace of mind. It will enable you to, think of possible solutions to challenges in your everyday experiences, rather than create major road blocks.

Recognise more options; in particular, those that you were not previously aware of. 

Develop different attitudes, and looking at the world with a fresh pair of eyes.

Analyse your internal world. This consists of your thoughts and emotions. Why not work on changing the way you view yourself?

Push yourself to try out new and unfamiliar things, and build your self-confidence and aptitude.

Expand your wisdom and unleash resources within that you didn’t know existed.

Share your new learning with others in order to help others grow.

Marie stammered at work today while speaking to a client on the phone. Yet, she still communicated what she wanted to.

In the afternoon, she had to give a brief presentation to her colleagues on a report she had prepared. Again, she stammered.

Stammering regularly throughout the day, like Marie, is common for many people who stammer. This can be enough to threaten a person’s self esteem on a daily basis.

However, in Marie’s case, she is trying to learn to cope. She has expanded her view of herself, by developing the belief that she is much more than the way she speaks.

What does this mean, you might ask?

Marie understands that the way she speaks is only one part of her. There are many more things that make her up as a person. Marie lists additional things that make her who she is:

I’m a successful business advisor

I’m a mother

I’m a wife

I’m a black belt in karate

I’m great at cooking

I’m a good friend

Hopefully, you get the idea…

Often, stammering can make us forget who we really are. However, with a slight shift in attitude, you can see beyond it.

In fact, try a little exercise now, and list 10 other things which make you who you are. You might just surprise yourself.

A key thing to remember when you are feeling down about stammering is that it doesn’t make you who you are. People are far more than the way they think, speak, feel and behave.

Dave is a person who stutters.

However, he refuses to let his stuttering problems get him down.

He still goes to work. He goes shopping. He meets his friends.

He stutters, yet asks for what he wants when ordering a takeaway.

Although life can be difficult at times, Dave is generally optimistic. He is happy.

Why?

Because he has got into the habit of doing things.

We are generally happier when we do physical activities, such as work, or sports; relaxing with friends and family, doing some charity work, or travelling. Doing things keeps us mentally occupied, and shifts our views away from our problems.

Why not try and keep yourself busy with a new hobby, or spend some time socialising with friends?

The opportunities to do activities are endless, and will depend upon your interests and aspirations.

Keeping ourselves active is also a great way to raise our confidence. And by doing challenging things such as putting yourself into certain speaking situations will increase your experience, as well as your wisdom.

And remember, physical activities are a good mental stimulation, and also provide you with exercise. This has to be a win-win situation!

With the nearing of the  launch of Speech Bloom, the world’s first online CBT and NLP program for stammering (stuttering), who would have thought 10 years ago that the Internet would end up having the following benefits for self-help? Some of these advantages are as follows: 

Sense of control

Self-help means literally that – taking control of your life, and being responsible for your actions. Choosing to seek help online is a choice you are making in order to make positive improvements in your life.

Lower cost

Some people can afford both computer-based self-help programs, and also face-to-face therapy. Internet based self-help offers a more cost effective alternative, for those who want it. 

Convenience

Many people like to help themselves from the comfort of their homes, either individually, or with their friends and family. Other people may like to work for half an hour during their lunch time. Online self-help offers a person the ability to access therapeutic services from anywhere where there is connection to the Internet.

Confidentiality

A problem shared is a problem halved. This is certainly true. However, the sad and unfortunate reality is that certain problems have stigmas attached to them. Some issues may be too difficult to speak about with others. In these cases, a person can help themselves privately if they wish to.

Quicker access to help

This one really doesn’t need much explanation. Within a few clicks of a keyboard, you can be up and running towards a better you.

Online self-help programs certainly increase people’s choices to use additional tools to support progress in their own individual journeys.

Lindsey is a person who stutters. She has been stuttering since she was 9 years old.

Now, at the age of 21, Lindsey has made a brave decision, and decided to do something about her speech difficulties.

She is undergoing speech therapy for stuttering with a speech and language therapist. She has learnt a few fluency techniques, which are helping her to speak more fluently. Together with her therapist, Lindsey has created a realistic plan of how to use them in the real world.

Lindsey has been trying to use these techniques when she is out shopping. She is finding it difficult. She finds it a challenge to breathe at the right times before speaking, and so gets the timing of the technique wrong.

However, Lindsey isn’t too worried about this, because another part of her plan is to go into challenging speaking situations to get over the fear of stammering. One of these is talking to her uncle Fred, who she usually finds difficult to talk with. However, She isn’t concerned about this situation.

She has also found that she continues to substitute words that she stutters on. At work on Monday morning, Lindsey swaps the word ‘did’, for ‘went’, when telling her colleagues what she did over the weekend.

However, Lindsey doesn’t get too anxious about this.

Previously, Lindsey would have become pretty depressed after experiencing the above situations.

Not anymore.

So what is she doing that is different?

Here’s what she is doing: Lindsey has adopted the attitude that ‘there is no failure, only feedback’.

In the cognitive therapy field of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), there are plenty of empowering beliefs a person can adopt to help them re-think about experiences happening in their daily lives.

One major statement is that ‘there is no failure, only feedback’.

So what has this got to do with stuttering, you might ask?

Well, by adopting the attitude that ‘there is no failure, only feedback’ can do a number of things. Here are some of the main ones:

A person who stutters can choose to think about themselves differently, without self-contempt and negativity, if things don’t work out as fast as they would like.

Instead of becoming fearful and anxious, a person who stutters can become curious. Doing this enables them to think more rationally about what is causing them to behave in a certain way, and choose alternative ways of thinking, and behaving.

By viewing speaking experiences as only feedback, a person who stutters can determine what they are doing right and wrong. In the future, it can help them to ensure that they do more of the right; the next time round they are in a similar situation.

If you find that you have stuttered in a difficult speaking situation, try and become more curious, rather than feeling bad about the situation.

Why not view it as feedback? What was it about the situation that caused you to stutter? What were you thinking? What could you do next time, instead?