Chapter Meeting – Aug 20, 2019

We talked about work situations in which people have not been nice towards our stuttering. Most times is more important to have a good group of people and a good environment at work than higher pay or benefits. Those relations have a lot of impact on our live and our levels of stress. We can ignore the people that hurt us but in the end, running away from the problem makes things works.

We talked about what to do when people ask us questions. Kids are naturally curious and we shouldn’t be offended when they ask. Some adults have no idea of when they are being insensitive. We have to educate them and show them the right things to do or not do when talking to a person that stutters. But some times it feels that we are the ones that have to do everything to make others comfortable as if it is our responsibility that people don’t have common sense about what to do when a person is stuttering. It is a difficult balance.

We all feel fortunate to be having these problems now and not in the 1920s when there was very little know about stuttering and a lot of misconceptions. It was considered a mental illness back then and many experiments, some of them very inhuman by today’s standards, were run in order to cure people from it. We are thankful that organizations like the NSA exist to help us. Children and young adults have a lot more resources now than many of us had when we were growing up. In a way, it is easier to be a person that stutters now than it was when we were growing up. There is more awareness and more support that there ever was.

Lastly, one of our members proposed organizing a book club as a social activity to get together and talk about other things besides stuttering. Stay tuned for more info!

Chapter Meeting – August 1, 2019

Hi! We are back from our summer recess. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

We had a very good meeting. One new person joined us and we had some very interesting conversations.

We talked a lot about educating others about stuttering. It is not about telling them what they did wrong or what hurt us about their behavior towards us. It is about making them aware of what they do so that they don’t repeat the same behavior the next time they encounter another person that stutters. We shared stories about how each of us has approached situations like this.

We also talked about things we don’t like about our stuttering: people finishing our sentences, feeling obligated to speak fast or in perfect full sentences, seeing the reactions from people, the physical tension that holds us back, having to substitute words instead of saying what we want. It is a long list and we all had examples about all these situations. We also shared advice on how to deal with many of them