Forced into silence: “My stammer forced me into silence for years – I couldn’t even say my own name.”
Georgia Scott’s stammer once prevented her from saying her own name and was forced into silence – now, she documents her condition to millions on TikTok in the hope that she can help educate others.
Telling somebody your name is usually a fleeting moment that requires little to no thought. But for 24-year-old Georgia Scott, it’s an ordeal – and it often leaves her paralysed with anxiety.
At the age of five, Georgia developed a stammer – a speech impediment characterised by repeated sounds, disruptions or stoppages in the fluency of speech.
The condition meant she was unable to answer the register at school, couldn’t say her own name and was forced into silence for the majority of her life.
But the media executive from Newcastle has since turned to TikTok as an outlet, sharing the highs and lows of living with a stammer to her millions of viewers.
Georgia’s videos quickly went viral after she began filming herself in environments that force her to be social with strangers.
From making speeches in public to opening up about her mental health and delving into the psychological effects of stammering, Georgia documents it all.
In her most popular TikTok videos, she can be seen ordering food at restaurants and drive-thrus.
She told the Mirror: “The fear gets worse if you don’t push yourself. Sometimes I feel paralysed with anxiety, but I do it anyway, no matter what my speech is going to be like.
“I felt forced into silence for the majority of my life because I was so embarrassed about my stammer.
“I didn’t want to be known as the girl with a stammer, I just hated everything about it. I hated the fact that I felt I couldn’t be my true self.
Now, Georgia proudly shares her stammer with fans online, using social media as a tool to help raise awareness.
Georgia, who says that her crippling social anxiety almost forced her to cancel her interview, recalls feeling held back at school due to her speech impediment.
“I didn’t once raise my hand at school, or ask my teachers for help”, she says.
“It was so frustrating when the teacher would ask the class a simple question, and nobody would answer. I’d be sat there thinking – you are all fluent speakers, why aren’t you participating? I would love to be able to do that!”, she added.
Her earliest recollection of the condition came when she was just 5 years old and was asked to read an extract from a book to the class. When her attempt was met with laughter, Georgia avoided contributing to lessons altogether.
The anxiety surrounding her stammer then grew so severe that it began to dictate almost every decision she made in life.
“I stayed at the same sixth form within my school, because I didn’t want to go to college.
“And that was almost the wrong decision for me because I was doing what my stammer was forcing me to do – staying within my comfort zone because it was too difficult for me to go elsewhere”, she says.
Despite this, Georgia says that she was lucky to have a great support system of friends and family to keep her going.
Forced into silence: “My stammer forced me into silence for years – I couldn’t even say my own name.”
READ MORE via The Mirror By Zahra Khaliq 26 May 2022
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