Many people who stutter or mispronounce words spend their lives obsessed with t he question of how to stop stammering. It’s not hard to see why. Even if no one blames you or makes fun of you for your stammering, the experience of not being able to say what you want quickly can be incredibly frustrating. No one likes feeling inarticulate. Most of the time, the stammerer knows that his speech impediment isn’t his fault. Yet, that lack of agency is perhaps one of the most frustrating things about stammering or stuttering. Is there a worse feeling than knowing just what you want to say, and being unable to say it, than being silenced by some mental quirk you don’t understand?
How People Stammer
After all this time, modern science still hasn’t figured out what causes some people to stammer. Most of our knowledge of stammering consists of the “how,” rather than the “why.” What we do know is that people’s stuttering can take several different forms. Some people find themselves opening their mouths and having to say one syllable or word several times before going on to the rest of their sentence. Others only have trouble with certain letters and certain sounds. Others still have trouble beginning statements. They get ready to speak, they open their mouths, and no words come out; their minds draw a blank.
Stuttering Is Mysterious
One of the main reasons this common speech impediment is so mysterious is that it’s highly specific to each individual suffering from it. Although most stuttering speech sounds alike enough, people’s reasons for stuttering are as unique as they are mysterious. Some people started stuttering the moment they learned to talk. Some didn’t start until young adulthood. Some stammerers spontaneously start speaking normally at age 13. Some normal speakers spontaneously start stammering at age 25. Some people have an obvious precedent for their speech impediment, such as abusive homes in which children learned early on that speaking, often as not, results in a beating. By contrast, some people stutter for no clear reason.
Stop Stammering With NLP And Hypnotherapy
The disciplines of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnosis can be combined with voice training and breathing exercises to help put an end to this frustrating involuntary habit. NLP and hypnotherapy are a powerful addition to the conventional techniques used by speech therapists to help stammerers.
NLP therapy trains people to recognize, understand, and control their emotional states. Although nobody knows the exact cause of stammering, negative emotions such as nervousness and dread of speaking are often involved. Using NLP techniques, stutterers can learn to stop over-preparing and over-analyzing the words you want to say before they try to say them. Even the most severe stammerers never stammers when they sing or shout. Much of this has to do with the spontaneity sung and shouted words. Hypnosis can also be used to help stammerers learn to relax before they speak.
With the help of voice training and breathing exercises, these techniques can achieve astonishing levels of success–even in situations where traditional speech therapy has failed. Many people have relied on these techniques to stop stammering altogether.
