My name is Aiden and I’ve been stuttering since I was 3 years old. Stuttering has affected every aspect of my life! I am so proud to say that the Stop Stuttering foundation saved my life! I am now a Person Who Stopped Stuttering, or PWSS and I am forever grateful for this program as I never thought that it was possible to stop stuttering!
I was the only person in my family that stuttered. When I was nervous or just in normal conversations, I would insert lots of filler words such as like, um, so, etc to give me time to say a sentence. I would repeat words and would even get stuck on some words.
My classmates, teammates, teachers, coaches, etc never understood my speech impediment. They didn’t understand why I was inserting such a ridiculous amount of fillers when I would talk. My sentences sounded jumbled and did not make sense at all. I would get embarrassed and shut down. I would slowly take myself out of many social situations for fear of stuttering. Despite the support of my entire family, I felt alone.
Throughout my life, my mom took me to various speech therapy programs, but none of them worked, unfortunately. Some of these focused too much on breathing patterns, others on the mechanics of speaking, others on practicing “problematic” words or sounds over and over again, etc. I tried everything! Rollercoaster, slow speech, robotic speech, etc. Nothing worked to help me become a fluent speaker. My speech continued to be cyclical—I had ups and downs, and good days and very bad days– the curse was still there and became a part of me as all my SLPs told me to accept it. I did not want to accept it and people around me, even if they did not tell me, did not want to listen to me when I was stuttering. The stuttering fears, the insecurities, and other kind of negative thoughts were predominating inside my mind. Obviously, my family also felt it, and suffered it along with me, but in a different way. My family tried to help me in every way that they could. They would order for me at a restaurant, make phone call for me, and basically try to alleviate the pressure of speaking so that I did not face any more humiliation when speaking. I was bullied and ridiculed and it shaped my entire life.
Then, one day, my mom, while once again searching for solutions for my speech impediment on Google, stumbled upon the World Stop Stuttering Association, and somewhere in the website she found that they offered a “Free Stuttering Therapy Session”. My mom at that time had this weird intuition, that this may be the one thing that would be my cure! She prayed so much about it!
I was hesitant because I was so defeated from all of the therapy that I had in my past. My mom encouraged me to just give it a chance! So, I ended up scheduling a consultation between my mom, myself, and one of WSSA’s Certified Stuttering Therapists, Danny. Danny was so understanding and explained everything in the program. For the first time in my life, I HAD HOPE!!!
I followed the program—sometimes I was less excited than other times but I pushed myself to give it 3 months! I was able to connect with Javier, a WSSA Certified Therapist, who also explained everything about their Neuroscience Method to Stop Stuttering, how he used to stutter too, and how he has helped many stutterers achieve fluency. I was able to get a free session, devoured Lee’s books and immediately after, I began joining the Group Practice Sessions. I especially enjoyed Danny’s sessions, and I am so grateful to him and the rest of the community for helping me overcome this “incurable” problem.
I noticed a significant improvement with the therapy but I still had some obstacles to overcome with my speech, As a college student, I wanted to move more quickly through the program so, I began with the individual therapy sessions with Javier, and my speech improved much faster than ever before. Since he also suffered this same problem, he understood it perfectly, and gave me the best advice possible. Within a month and a half and around 5 therapy sessions, I stopped appearing speech disabled. This means that I have mastered the tools and techniques to avoid having humiliating speech incidents. I am never again going to appear speech disabled. My next goals are to eliminate the residual stuttering fears and anxiety and learn to love to speak in all situations. My confidence has improved significantly! People cannot believe that I am speaking so fluently!
Many of us have stopped stuttering. There is no reason why you can’t do it too! And in WSSA you won’t be alone. During this journey
to fluency, I’ve met wonderful people from all over the world who have supported me and helped me. If you want to stop stuttering, you’ve come to the right place.
Aiden, Virginia, September 2024
