Would You Consider Taking a Magic Pill to Cure Your Stutter?
My name is Nadia Sabeh Ayon, and I am a second-year graduate student in speech pathology at the University of South Carolina. I have read many of the articles posted on this website, finding them incredibly inspiring. Currently, I am working with a PWS, and I have met/worked with multiple PWS before, and I am truly fascinated by the unique characteristics of each person’s stutter. It’s remarkable how each individual’s experience with stuttering is so distinct from one another, including their perspectives on it.
I recently came across an article titled “Would You Consider Taking a Magic Pill to Cure Your Stutter?” and I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts and personal responses to this specific question.
Thank you for this most interesting question!
I’ve encountered this question many times before (especially in stuttering support groups), and it’s always insightful to reflect on it.
For me, the answer is yes – and it always has been yes. This of course presumes that the pill is totally effective and has no negative side effects. It would be very nice to be totally freed of stuttering. I don’t think my life would change that much, but it would be great to converse without any stuttering-related anxiety.
I have relevant experiences that confirm my answer would be yes.
Decades ago, I enjoyed many extended periods of fluency, due to very intensive and daily practice of fluency shaping techniques. I very much enjoyed these fluency periods (lasting for weeks, or sometimes months), and felt freed from stuttering-related anxieties. I was more willing to enter situations that I had regarded as difficult in the past, and felt a sense of freedom in being able to say anything without worrying about stuttering blocks.
But alas, there was a “catch” to this: I was only able to maintain fluency with much intensive daily formal practice, and monitoring all conversations for proper technique use. This was just too much for me – I couldn’t maintain all these intensive efforts in the real long term. All my fluency periods eventually sank into relapses – for me, it just wasn’t possible to maintain my gains on a permanent basis.
Therefore, I eventually decided to simply accept myself calmly and peacefully as a person who happens to stutter. And life became much easier, much less pressured as a result.
So if maintaining fluency required an enormous amount of effort, I would say no. I’ve already had those experiences.
BUT if it was a matter of just a pill to cure the whole thing completely, then yes. That would be great. I’ve stuttered enough (now for some 66-67 years).
These days I calmly accept the fact that I happen to stutter. But if a cure was very simple, then okay – let’s get rid of it.
This is of course only theoretical. Science is nowhere near that point yet.
Hi Nadia,
Thank you for the question — and props to the University of South Carolina’s SLP program! I’ve spoken there twice and am impressed with the work they do.
This is definitely a question I’ve been asked many times. 10-15 years ago and beyond, I would have easily said yes. Now, not necessarily.
I would take a pill in regards to a certain situation(s) — speaking more fluently on the phone is a big one for me. To completely cure my stuttering, however, I wouldn’t.
For many years, I’ve tried to escape my stutter, if you will. As a child, the fallacy of stuttering was bad and needed fixing was ingrained in my mind. I grew up mainly in the ’90s, so then — and even well into the 2000s — there was nothing positive associated with stuttering. Not in my experience, at least.
But as years went by, my perspective gradually changed. Meeting people from the stuttering community definitely helped whether they were professionals, PWSs like me, or even both. My stuttering, I can finally say, I’m not ashamed of. Frankly, it’s a part of me and I’m okay with that. In fact, I embrace it. So, taking a pill to cure it entirely I feel is a disservice to myself and actually counter-productive to my near-lifelong journey of hope and acceptance. To take a pill to cure my stuttering would be a figurative middle finger to that journey.
(this, by the way, is solely my opinion — there are no wrong answers)
So, to sum up, for a specific speaking situation, I’d consider a pill; for my stuttering overall, no. It’s a part of me and I don’t want to fully eliminate that.
I hope this helps.
Hi Nadia. I’m so happy you realise the unique characteristics of each person’s stutter, and how each individual’s experience with stuttering is so distinct from one another, including their perspectives on it.
Would I take the magic pill? As a kid, for sure. As I wasn’t accepted the way I spoke. Not at home, not in school, not by peers. I was never enough. Always bullied because of the way I speak, not good enough being who I was. If I’d only stop stuttering…
Today, no thanks. Sure, I am happy for the techniques I learned to speak with less of a struggle, and sometimes they don’t work and I stutter on every word. But I now know I’m good enough. I know my worth, I followed my hopes and dreams, I have my skills, a family, friends, a fulfilling job. And, people know me because of my stutter.
So sometimes I take a pill to relax my muscles, as stuttering can give me a migrain or even the hiccups! But stuttering is simply something that’s my feature. I once told our clients that, if they call me and there’s a silence, they have come to me, as I just might be in a block. 🙂 I’ve travelled the world as a speaker, because of my stutter. I got some of my jobs because of what my stutter has taught me. I pay it forward to help YPWS. I even got a tattoo earlier this year saying “Good enough”. And if people would tell me I should take that pill, I’d tell them where they can put it themselves. 😉
Keep them talking
Anita