Why Do People Keep Relapsing Into Stuttering?

Many people who stutter reduce or even stop all stuttering by finding a few methods that work, but they often relapse within a few weeks or months after stopping. Why does this happen? Most of us who beat stuttering permanently use many different methods, not just one or two. The stuttering habit tends to overcome methods that are used too little or inconsistently. In addition, most people who stutter do not stop all stuttering at first. They might reduce it by 25, 50, or 75 percent. A few may reach over 90 percent. However, unless they get very close to 100 percent, they continue to hear stuttering in their speech.

Every time they hear stuttering, it feeds and spreads like a virus. One analogy is a knife cut on your skin. If you leave a cut alone, it will naturally heal (unless it requires stitches). But if you keep tearing it open a little here and a little there, it never heals. Minor stuttering prevents your mind from fully unlearning the habit. By stuttering, I mean only the “bad incidents” — speech that a total stranger would unquestionably perceive as stuttered. I say “stranger” because people close to you may expect you to stutter and view minor incidents as normal. To keep stuttering, you must seriously stutter; the habit is only reinforced when you feel disabled during these bad incidents. Anything less is normal speech behavior and should be ignored. To prevent the constant reopening of the stuttering habit in your mind, you must stop all bad incidents.

Many people who stutter have found a few of our Crutches and are able to reduce stuttering by using them, but they do not apply them consistently. They struggle to understand that they must eliminate bad incidents entirely. Reducing them is not enough. Being a speech cop means allowing zero bad incidents. At the beginning, this is very difficult, and the more severe the stuttering, the harder it is. Few will ever stop stuttering permanently until they learn to stop all bad incidents.

This may be accomplished in stages. Take “X,” one of our students, a person who was 100 percent mute. After two years of hard work and several coaching sessions, X reduced bad incidents by 50 percent. His case is extremely challenging. But when X can use the Crutches and stop nearly all bad incidents, he will stop stuttering.

Also, do not confuse fear with stuttering. Fear is the second battle. Stopping stuttering is the first. Focus on eliminating all bad incidents before tackling fear. The fastest way to learn and apply these proven methods is to join as a Stuttering Plan member of WSSA. Membership provides access to four speech-related books and around 50 video lessons based on those books. You can keep up with blogs, participate in forums, read weekly emails with the latest tips, and attend SAM, the world’s only speech club where ex-stutterers help others stop stuttering. Finally, consider private coaching from one of WSSA’s certified stuttering specialists, all of whom stopped stuttering using the neuroscience method.