AN OBSESSION WITH SPEECH: STAMMERERS PAIN

It only looks like impossible to say a few words when you are down into the stuttering foray. But it might come as a surprise to you if you do not have this speech impediment because you can’t believe that people are having brain strains, stresses, depression and various anxiety disorders because of what they are going through.

Reading a lot of reviews about stammering and talking to a few people who all happen not to have stammered before gave insightful thoughts about breathing in, talking slowly, feeling happy when talking and not hiding your stammer. But the real question is how can someone who has not died before no how it feels like to die and enter eternity. It’s just heresy and from researches many people have searched but the root cause is still unknown leaves a lot of people with this impediment into pondering about suicide every now and then.

One of the guides that I normally I read when I am terrified is an Advice to people who stutter which I happened to download off the internet. It was insightful with people sharing their personal experience about not wanting to get married, have suicidal ideations and losing friends that they think would have helped them, but who would want to hang out with someone with a few words. Dwelling on the positives, it calms someone with a stutter down because it presses on the experiences of your elder brothers and sisters who have fought against all odds and against the tide to do something great with their lives.

At a point in time in my life, someone confronted me and called me a recluse person, but I thought and saw it as this person was so close to me I thought would understand my situation and know why I don’t want to hang out because sometimes talking much leads me to drinking a lot of water as I can feel that my frontal lobe (the forehead part of the brain) is giving me signals to just sit back and relax.

Many people are starting out life with this stammering and in my early twenties I have seen a lot of love, pain, sorrow and embarrassment but that won’t stop me from achieving the great things and accomplishments I have set for myself and so are you. People can call us whatever name, label you with whatever, but those who really understand are the people who have it. Only a poor man understands a poor man and a hungry man understands an angry man because he has been out there, brothers and sisters of the fraternity understands your pain.

At the upcoming International Stuttering Awareness Day in October people should know that stuttering is not a joke but a pain that fills up the adrenalin of its bearers although it might be a stepping stone that sees them enjoy a fruitful life and met out help to others because they have been out there.

If you consider your pain, you won’t be able to do anything meaningful with your stammering, but dwelling on the positives, we have experienced something new which looks impossible but can be geared towards a positive energy in order to help us reach our stands in life.

Always remember that your circumstances are hindrances to seeing your abilities and therefore speech is an obsession and stammering is a pain but we live to do something great without lives no matter what. STAY ALIVE.

Raphael Minter is a freelancer who shares his thoughts through writing and writing only and has stammered from childhood, you can connect with him on TWITTER @MinterRalph AND FACEBOOK, Ralph Minter so that you can all heal yourselves through sharing of personal knowledge and experiences.

WHY STAMMERING IS A SERIOUS ISSUE AFRICANS ARE IGNORANT OFF

One time I was shocked, was devastated when I saw a channel in Africa run adverts and interview people who have stammered on some of their experiences and how it has affected him. Because of stammering, He couldn’t take promotions and independently discarded himself from certain jobs like Journalism, Public Relations Officer and Customer Service because it dealt with meeting people every now and then and he didn’t have the energy to go about talking without thinking about how his body reacts every now and then. What happened out of his experiential knowledge was a group of people who were ignorant of the subject and were laughing mercilessly because they see it as a thing that is used to make fun of its victim and not something that has become a block to the victim or bearer realizing his true vision and potentials.

Stammering in Africa is not heard or talked about, sometimes it seems people do not even research about it and know the effects it has on its bearer so that people would know how to deal with a person with that problem. Everything has been covered with the colour of the skin of black people and there is no chance for a light to shine. Many people even regard people who stammer as people who do not share and are not competent enough but people who are closer to such people know what it’s all about.

If you have time, scroll through the number of countries who are part of the International Federation and you would be shocked at the numbers you would find. When I went down researching about the assistive device that seems to be suppressing the impediment in people, I just relaxed when I came across the SPEECHEASY device which was introduced some years back. The device has been around for long but how many of them are found on the African market. Their website directed me to a sales point in Africa where a message was duly sent via mail but up to the point of the author writing this post, no message has been gotten. Stammering seems to have taken a lot of stuff from capable Africans who could have done more to help the continent and the world at large.

Whatever happens, Africans should start appreciating the problems and research more into the issue so that children coming up would get help and be treated by various speech therapists or better still receive the SPEECHEASY DEVICE which would help salvage their situations and be free from ignorant Africans who see them as a prey towards their fun making moves.