NSA Orange County Meeting Update 5/26/16

There were 5 people at the meeting including a new member – welcome Deanna! Deanna comes to us on the recommendation of her speech therapist. Deanna’s mother joined us.  Family members of people who stutter are always welcome at our meetings.

We started with introductions & the question: “If you could be any animal, what animal would you be?” (Our introductory questions are always icebreakers, designed to get everyone to participate at the beginning of a meeting. There is a method to my madness.) Two people wanted to be some kind of bird, perhaps an eagle, as it would be cool to be able to fly above everything and easily go where you want. One said he also might want to be a wolf:  he has a Belgian Shepherd he is fond of that resembles a wolf.  Another person would like to be a leopard: pound for pound, the leopard is the world’s strongest land animal. That way, he said, “Nobody would mess with me.”  (Go to https://youtu.be/toJ7Kuus7e8).

The fourth person chose a dog as she has a pet dog she likes a lot.

Next we did Table Topics, which we haven’t done in a while. Topics included:

·      Your favorite vacation

·      As a person who stutters, how do you handle public speaking?

·      What is something you do that is a waste of time, but you do it anyway?

·      If you could travel in time, would you go forward or backward?

This last was one of the most interesting in a long time.

Then we discussed some mysterious aspects of stuttering. We’re all familiar with some of these: we don’t stutter when we sing, talk in unison with others, or talk to babies or pets. However, there are others. For example, one member said that sometimes it’s as if he “forgets” he stutters. He can sometimes be talking (even on the phone), say for five or ten minutes, and afterward realize that he didn’t stutter, or he may have stuttered but wasn’t aware of it. This second possibility, stuttering but not being aware of it, is the way all stutterers were when they were children before they became aware of their stuttering.  The point was made that not being aware of your stuttering is really the same as not stuttering, as far as the person who stutters is concerned.

Another mysterious aspect of stuttering mentioned is that most stutterers stutter more (or less) with certain types of people: peers, authority figures, & work colleagues to name a few. Two people said that they stutter more when they are pulled over by a policeman.  Also, the subject matter or topics in a speaking situation affect the amount of stuttering. One person noted he stutters more when talking about something he cares about or is important to him.  If we are being judged in some way (not on our speech) also affects the degree of stuttering, for example giving an oral presentation at work or school.

All of this seems to point to that, even though it has been pretty well established that the cause of stuttering is neurological, psychological factors also play a big role. The psychological factors seem to trigger the neurological base.

That’s all for now. The next meeting is Thursday, June 9. (How can it be June already?) Same time & place. See you all there.