Having a stammer is bad enough on the best of days, but having to deal with an inveterate salesperson over the phone is a stretch too far. This is the situation I found myself in today at work. Only with difficulty did I manage to wriggle myself out. I try to ignore my speech problem, but experiences like this make me more conscious of it. I get particularly irritated when callers misinterpret my stammer for a very bad cold. “You sound as if you have a terrible cold young man;” a pompous caller said recently, “your employer really ought to send you home.” What was I to say?
As a teenager, I was more self-conscious of my problem. Teenagers generally have a lot to say, as I did, but much of what I wanted to say remained suppressed. This led to a tremendous feeling of frustration, which I believe, affected my whole being emotionally and psychologically in those crucial formative years and continues to affect me today (I am now 32). I spoke little, which meant I had few friends and therefore socialised very little. Perhaps that is why I get very uncomfortable at large social gatherings.
At school, I was bright- the brightest in my class- but I didn’t take part in class discussions or raise my hand to answer questions. I was particularly afraid of conversing with girls. When it was unavoidable, it left some girls giggling at my stammer. As for romance, it was non-existent. There was a young lady I felt attracted to, but I never had the courage to say a word to her for fear of provoking derision.
My advice to any young person who stammers: try not to think about it. The more you think about it, the more likely it is to affect your development. That is easier said than done, thanks to the insistent salesperson and the pompous caller worried about my “cold”.
For more details on stammering, see: http://www.stammering.org/
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