by Barbara Cox

Created on: August 14, 2008

I can't talk about speech therapy-never had it. I can't rave about electronic devices-they weren't invented yet. I can't say if hypnosis works-never tried it. I can't speak to any of these methods to manage or minimize stuttering. Nevertheless, I can speak-without stuttering. Those who have known me since my childhood would almost label this a miracle, because there was a time when I could not speak without stuttering, and therefore, rarely spoke at all. Yet, today, most speech therapists accept the premise that stuttering is incurable. I am living proof that it is curable, for some, at least.

Stuttering ruined my teen years. My only friends were at-school friends, and I could count those on one hand, with a few fingers left over. For me, there were no football games, no school dances, no proms, no date nights, and no after-school clubs. The only thing that made my school years bearable was the school choir. You can sing without stuttering. Thank God, I inherited musical ability from my mother and sang at every opportunity. Something else I discovered during my high school years is that I could speak French without stuttering. Therefore, I did fairly well in that class, too.

The absolutely worst class of all was Speech and Debate. This was 55 minutes of horrific torture. Fifty minutes of which I spent only halfway hearing every one else's speech while dreading my turn at the podium. Five minutes of which I suffered through gut wrenching horror as I stumbled through my note cards, head spinning, eyes blurring, lips frozen on m's and b's, tongue stuttering on t's and d's, and tonsils gulping on g's. I am sure it was also uncomfortable for the teacher and my classmates, but I would have done anything to change places with any of them.

Now, let us fast-forward about 30 years. I was recently discussing speech impediments with a co-worker, and suddenly recalled that I had once stuttered. That memory caught me off-guard, which proved to me that I had completely cured myself of stuttering. I just don't think about it anymore.

How did I do it? How did I, on my own, cure something that most speech pathologists claim is only manageable, not curable, even with their therapies? It was not easy or quick, but it was something I wanted so badly, that I systematically planned and implemented the cure.

After high school, I sank into a deep depression. It lasted for several years. I locked myself in my bedroom and wrote depressing lyrics, set to morose melodies. Loneliness

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