We had a guest tonight, a fellow NSA member from the New York chapter. He shared some information about an upcoming one-day conference that the three NY chapters will be hosting at the end of October. The official announcement will be out soon.
One of our newer members shared that he finds the meetings to be helpful for him, He also created a Facebook page dedicated to his stuttering journey in an attempt to be more open about it. So far he has found a lot of support from his family and friends. This was a good lead into talking about other online resources. We talked about Stutter Social (www.stuttersocial.com) and about other Facebook groups. Having the opportunity to talk to other people that stutter, whether in person or online, is a good tool to practice and gain confidence.
Wet talked about what success means to us and the importance of separating success from being fluent. You can be communicate successfully by stuttering comfortably. We all agreed that being in control of a situation helps but sometimes it is exhausting.
We also talked about medical research in Stuttering and whether there are any substances that can help. For example, there are medications that are used to treat alcoholism that use muscle relaxers. In the study, there was a person that stuttered and after reaching certain dose, didn’t stutter anymore. Jerry McGuire, the NSA Chairman, has also been leading studies on medications that can help people who stutter.
We finished the meeting with some administration topics about upcoming events and the closing words.