Mandarin is my language, and this is my story. I am Jinfeng and I live in Beijing, China. I am 21 and in college, in electrical engineering. Stuttering, for me, has been the biggest problem and barrier to a successful and happy life. I began stuttering very young, maybe around first grade. I once announced to the entire class that I have difficulties speaking the words with particular syllables such as /d/, /b/, (day, dog, Basketball in English) etc, which was really embarrassing. I thought announcing the problem will help me but actually it didn’t. After I declared I have difficulty speaking, my speaking problem become worse. In high school, it got more worse. In the last year or so, I did some blogs with other PWS online. It was interesting, but it didn’t help me solve my problem.
I had tried many methods but all failed, until I met Lee’s book, a lucky thing for me. I started reading whatever books I could find but they didn’t help. Then, in Januay 2018, I found Lee’s book, and it was a big help. I read it many times. Last April I sent an email to Lee and asked him to coach me . He did. By last July I had stopped stuttering. That was four months ago. I no longer stuttered. I did still worry about my speech so I kept Skyping with Lee anyway, and it helped even more. I used to worry about my speech most of every hour, now I worry about it less than 5 minutes an hour. And when I think it in negative way, I attack it with my positive suggestions and I constantly tells myself that speech means idea, joy, listener, enthusiasm, immediacy, spontaneity, etc. Lee said that I should pretend to be an actor when I speak and I do this too and it helps.
I read the stories on Speech Anxiety Anonymous and they also gave me great hope. I began to believe that I could stop my stuttering. It is necessary to believe that you can stop it. I did my best to do exactly what the book suggested, and my speech improved quite a bit, but I wanted more, and I was able to Skype with Lee, and I did that weekly for the past few months. I also watched 30 or more of Lee’s coaching-videos with other PWS on YouTube, and this helped too.
Lee urged me to learn self-hypnosis, and I did that too. I read Melvin Power’s self-hypnosis book and other materials about self-hypnosis on YouTube and Google. I have been giving myself three treatments (1 AS + 2 SH) daily for many months now. I read aloud an hour or so a day to myself and sometimes I record them and send then to my friends and my family, and I practice the Crutches when I read aloud and in conversations. I haven’t had a speech disability incident in months now. The stutter fears die slow, but they are dying, and I feel I can avoid any stutter-block-threat.
I feel more and more confident and happier every day and recently I have been being very interested in Neuroplasticity. Lee’s book is based on neuroplasticity; one basic points about neuroplasticity is: “use it or lose it”, so if you want to stop stuttering, you need to unlearn it; you need to use crutch to beat(avoid) stuttering/blocking and create abundant fluent memory in stutter-free zone until you do not stutter for a long time, then, you brain will “lose” it, the block(area) about stuttering in your brain will disappear and you rewire your brain. You win!
And now not only do I use AS and SH to beat speech anxiety in all its form but also I use them to improve other areas in my life. For example, I use AS and SH to get more motivation. I tell myself that I love to study; I love math; When I’m learning, I feel happy and excited; I can’t wait to study… I repeat them constantly until they become my reality. So my point is now I realize I can make myself to love any positive things no matter what it is as long as I want. Like Lee says stuttering can be changed into a blessing.
From where I live, sadly, I can’t even post a positive review of Lee’s book on Amazon. So I post it here. (note: I wrote this book review some weeks ago.)
I’m a Chinese guy and I’m not a fluent English speaker. I bought this book through the overseas purchasing agents several months ago. I think this book and the author’s abundant Skype videos on YouTube and twitch will have the most profound impact on the stuttering community. I think I’ve found the ultimate answer about stuttering in this book (and Lee’s Skype) that I have been searching for in the past eight years, and methods Lee offer in this book touch the core of stutter problem.
Lee’s book is not only helping me beat my stutter/speech anxiety, but also helping me love to speak and become a good speaker. What’s more, this book is helping me build an extraordinary confidence about my future life. I am very grateful to Lee and his book and abundant Skypes that Lee offers. I want to finish this review by a quote from one of my most admirable PWS (now PWSS(people who stop stuttering)) : “Every thing you feel( like anxiety, stress, fear, etc) is in your head and can be controlled.” So bossing you mind is the ultimate answer I’ve found in this book. I can decide I stutter or not, so I decide NOT and I can decide to love to speak and to become the best speaker in my peer group as well because I, NOT someone or something else is the BOSS of my mind.
So I really learn a lot things from this process of beating speech anxiety. In addition to what I’ve mentioned above, I also realize so many anxiety, fears and perfectionism which I’ve been so long having are really ridiculous. Lee’s life philosophy really makes sense to me – as long as I do two thing: the first one is doing the best I can do every day and the second one is being a loving person to as many people as I can. Then I have no reason to fear anything. I have plenty reasons to respect myself and be happy. You can do it too. Believe that you can and get Lee’s book and do it.
If you want to hear me talk, my success video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMtFrslRPCE.
All I can do is to say thank you to Lee and SAA from the bottom of my heart, and to tell the world that these methods work. Life is so much better and relaxed without stuttering. Lee’s book is the road out. I hope you take it.
JINFENG, Beijing, China, December 2018
