A friend directed me to this thread and after reading all of it I simply had to respond.
I'm 30 yo and have been stuttering as long as I can remember. It lead to a childhood and teenage years of teasing and humiliation. I was often mistaken as being grumpy, antisocial, stupid or rude because I kept to close friends instead of just "getting along with everybody".
Non-stutterers have no idea what it's like. You get this amazing funny cool thought and as you try to express it you muck it up so badly that your audience gets bored and loses interest. I try to avoid making phone calls as far as I possibly can. I would rather drive across Joburg to go make my hairdresser appointment in person for the next week than simply phone them.
I have tried pretty much everything. Speech therapy, hypnosis, and now anti-anxiety meds (not related, but still not helping). I'd like to try the hearing aid thing, but at $4000....
Tips for dealing with stutterers:
Don't tell them to "relax, take your time". We're not idiots, we know that. In fact, experts reckon stutterers are above average intelligent.
Don't finish our sentences.
Take the lead in introductions. I have the misfortune of stuttering with my own name, irony is a bitch.
Above being said, don't talk for us. Yes I know... tricky.
Don't tell us about your aunt who also stutters. That's great, but we don't really care.
We're generally awesome, smart, funny people. We just need to feel more comfortable with the people around us. I generally joke that it was divine intervention that made me stutter... Otherwise I'd be one of those smartasses that has an answer to everything.
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