Stuttering: A speech syndrome or is it a byproduct of Social Anxiety?

It’s 4 in the morning I woke up really early and there’s one thing that popped in my mind. Stuttering, I wonder why I stutter so much whenever I’m speaking or even reading a short story to my toddler. I got up and googled to find out if it has anything to do with my social anxiety. But why would I fear of speaking if I’m only with a kid who doesn’t even know how to form a single sentence yet. I was shock on what I’ve found out. According to Psych Central on an article entitled “Stuttering: Myth vs. Fact” by Beth Gilbert, that apparently stuttering is considered by medical community as a psychiatric disorder categorize at the same level with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

I’ve always wanted to apply as a customer service representative as a part time job while I’m studying in College, but I always flunking the final interview and the phone simulation stage. I figured I wasn’t confident enough which was why my voice kept stuttering. I thought I can cure it by enrolling in speech classes. Though it helped me a little bit the stutter just won’t go away. So I gave up and now after 7 years, I thought my speech is better but I still can’t help the stuttering. Could it be caused by my social anxiety? Or am I just too dumb to speak fluently?

Stuttering isnt caused by social anxiety or stress

But it seems the other way around, social anxiety is a concomitant of stammering. In the Psych Central article Catherine Montgomery, executive director and founder of The American Institute for Stuttering in New York City, N.Y. says it’s not caused by emotional or psychological problems nor a nervous disorder or a condition caused by stress. Statistics even show that the average IQ of stutterers is about 14 points higher to that of the national average and the likelihood of to total recovery significantly diminishes as the child grows older. Studies suggest that stuttering has also a genetic basis, a family history of stuttering and strong fears or concerns about stuttering on the part of the child. These factors are essential for the diagnosis and in developing a specific treatment program.

But the best treatment as researchers found out is early intervention. “The earlier the therapy occurs, the better the results in resolving stuttering” says Maguire, a clinical researcher at UC Irvine. The most common treatment is behavioral, that is designed to educate and develop a person’s specific skills or behavior that can improve their oral communication. Pharmacological anti-anxiety therapies are also available for those who have difficulty controlling anxiety using cognitive-behavioural techniques. For those who have a family member, a friend or colleagues who have stutter problems, try to understand their situation and let them finish their sentences. Avoid giving suggestions like “slow down, relax or take a deep breath”. You may think that these are helpful but it can worsen the uncomfort they feel.

 

Originally posted 2014-08-03 17:03:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Could Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Have Helped Kurt Cobain Overcome Social Anxiety Disorder?

Yesterday I watched the biopic ‘About a Son’ in which Kurt Cobain discusses his childhood, music career and views on life. An edited version of 25 hours of interview tapes recorded a year before he committed suicide, the film offers some insight into the negative thought patterns that seemed to be driving Kurt towards taking his own life.

From the film  I got the impression that Kurt exhibited many of the characteristics and symptoms of someone who suffers from social anxiety disorder.

Unhappy childhood

His childhood was blighted by an unaffectionate parent and problems at school from feeling isolated and bullied by the other kids. He comments how he used to feel constantly paranoid and threatened by other people, and even had thoughts of violence because of it.

If you suffer from a lack of affection, a difficulty to connect with other people and social awkwardness then this can lead to an irrational fear, distrust or hatred of other people in adult life. And it’s believed by psychotherapists that the underlying thought processes which lead to social anxiety disorder are formed by unhappy childhood experiences.

Kurt was known to be a recluse, withdrawn and rarely engaged with other people if he could avoid it, typical symptoms of someone who suffered from social phobia.

Kurt’s answer to his troubling thoughts and his chronic stomach pains was to self medicate with opiates and heroin, which would have offered temporary escape but exasperated his problems in the long run.

A life without hope?

Nobody really knows what drove someone who was wealthy, successful and had a baby girl to feel that life was so futile that suicide was the only escape from their misery. But it’s likely that it was his inability to overcome his troubling thought patterns that made his life seem so intolerable.

Now I’m not an expert on Kurt Cobain and haven’t read any of the books on his life, but from my perspective it seems that he could have benefited from cognitive behavioural therapy.

Social phobia and other social anxiety disorders are driven by irrational, negative thought patterns. If Kurt could have been helped to understand how it was the unhelpful childhood experiences driving his subconscious hatred of people and gloomy outlook on life then maybe he could have been directed onto another path.

You feel the way that you think

The way our brains respond to the world around us is a complex puzzle which psychologists and therapists are still making sense of.

But if the brain has been programmed to think in an unhelpful way because of a troubling childhood then, with practice and patience, it can be reprogrammed to think in a more, realistic and helpful manner.

Perhaps if Kurt had learned to challenge his negative thoughts and to replace them with more objective ways of thinking then he might still be with us today, and writing more optimistic songs filled with life and hope because of it.

Image courtesy of Buzzworthy

Originally posted 2008-12-08 17:14:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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How Social Anxiety Can Affect You at Work and 4 Ways to Overcome it

When you have social anxiety disorder work can be stressful and it can affect your productivity. While this is all too familiar to sufferers, this was also the insight of Dr Lynn Bufka, a licensed psychologist, when sharing advice on treating social anxiety and stress related problems in the workplace.

Her comment was in response to questions during the “Ask Me Anything” segment on Reddit about coping with stress. Social anxiety can be at its most acute at work and often people who suffer from social anxiety don’t only put their careers at risk but their personal lives as well. There are also many people who spent months or years struggling to get a job because their social anxiety prevents them calling potential employers for an interview or showing up for interview at all.

Social anxiety in the workplace is often misunderstood

A lot of people don’t understand what it is like to be living with social anxiety. Some even criticize them with lack of self motivation and laziness. But motivating yourself is hard when your mind is filled with negative thoughts.

If you are currently working, social anxiety can also decrease chances of promotion and might affect your performance because you are not comfortable in the company of your colleagues. This may lead your co workers thinking that you are unfriendly and mean. There are times that you are unable to complete any task because you are too focused on your anxiety.

While this all sounds doom and gloom, the good news is that there are strategies you can use to reduce your social anxiety and feel more relaxed and comfortable at work:

1. Slow down your breathing – relax and give yourself a break. Take a deep breath and place your hand on your abdomen. Do this for five seconds and repeat as many times until your chest stops feeling tight and your mind has stopped racing.

2. Make small talk – people love to talk about themselves, so focus your attention on what your colleagues or clients want to talk about rather than yourself.

3. Practice at home – think of the stressful things that you are anxious about. Practice them with people whom you are comfortable with, like your family members and friends.

4. Remember that you are not the center of everyone’s attention – we are always worrying about what other people might think if we say this or that. But we don’t know that the other person is also worrying about themselves.

If you suffer from social anxiety, I know these tips are easier said than done. The key is to think about including them in a long-term strategy for overcoming social anxiety, where you have the goal of feeling confident and relaxed around people and then plot the steps towards getting there. This can include getting in shape, taking up more hobbies and interests, gradual exposure to social situations and forming mutually supportive friendships with other people that understand what you’re going through, whether in a live support group or in the online world.

Originally posted 2014-08-14 14:49:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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