stuttering/stammering and the holidays
Here is a post sent to our international discussion group about why the holidays can result in more than usual stuttering blocks (aka ‘turbulence’) and what to do about it.
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(Sent Dec 20th, 2008. ” Happy Holidays, but watch out for turbulence …”)
I thought it would be good to remind everyone that this can be a tough time
of year for our speech. It seems to be full of many dynamics that can cause
turbulence and a trip to the swamp. Here’s a few things I spotted in my own
life as Christmas approaches:
… many more approach avoidance conflicts like what presents to buy, who to
buy for, who to invite, who’s invitations to accept, etc. Remember that
approach avoidance in one part of your life can lead to the old ‘fear of
stammering/desire to be fluent’ conflict.
… frequent social gatherings/parties which usually involves drinking
resulting many times in sloppy spontaneous, and not feeling like working on
speech the next day.
… this can be a very busy time of year cutting down on time and energy
available for practice.
… with busyness comes rushing which makes it difficult to resist time
pressure.
… with more social interactions, there’s more of a chance that certain
ones (introductions to strangers at parties, etc.) will be more difficult at
a time when we’re more vulnerable resulting in blocking and loss of
confidence.
… desire to spend vs. fear of the coming bad economic times (needing to
save).
… for people like myself who put on weight easily, it is difficult to stay
disciplined with a diet. poor discipline in one area can lead to poor
discipline in our speech. Putting on ten pounds during these holidays and
being back in the swamp is not good for the old hexagon.
What to do? Most important for me is to just realize the above dynamics and
that this time of year is a tough challenge for my speech, and to not just
‘let it go’ because it’s holidays. Next is to make those warm up calls every
morning to drill the mentality and technique and to remind myself during the
day to show people I’m working on my speech and explain to my close friends
that this is a rough time and ask their help to let me know if they see/hear
me being sloppy.
Hope this helps, and hope you all have a great Christmas and prosperous,
happy, healthy, disciplined, New Year where you start doing more of those
things to realize your potential.
cheers,
dave
Tags: holiday trouble, stammer, stammering, stutter, stutttering