{"id":822,"date":"2019-11-21T21:53:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T21:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stutteroff.com\/?p=822"},"modified":"2022-08-10T11:52:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T10:52:21","slug":"stuttering-vs-public-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stutteroff.com\/stuttering-vs-public-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuttering VS fear of public speaking: Are they related?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Are you afraid of public speaking? <\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My first encounter with public speaking, other than regular classroom experiences, was at the age of thirteen. My dad had decided to throw a big bar mitzvah party for me. You see, he\u2019d never had his own bar mitzvah, and it was very important to him that I have a proper one. And by \u201cproper,\u201d I mean that I had to give a speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not talking about just a \u201cthank you, enjoy your meal\u201d type of a speech, but a pre-written orthodox sermon. A very natural thing for a thirteen year old, secular kid who also happened to have a severe stutter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the weeks prior to the event, I was excited. I dealt with who to invite and what to wear. I tried not to think too much about the speech. Since I\u2019d made a great effort to avoid speaking in class, I didn\u2019t really know what was heading my way anyway. How bad could it be?<\/p>\n

At the event, with my \u201890s style oversized groom outfit and my Keanu Reeves hair (I still had hair back then), I was still completely unaware of what I got myself into.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Me at my bar mitzvah. Cute or what?<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Once dinner was finished, I was led to the dance-floor, with a microphone in one hand and an extremely long written sermon in the other. There, in front of a hundred family members and friends, half of whom I didn\u2019t know, I started reading.<\/p>

And the trauma started.<\/p>

I struggled with every syllable\u00a0
of every word,\u00a0
in every sentence.<\/p>

Soon enough I realized that the best outcome of the situation would be that by the time I finished reading, the audience would be so bored that they\u2019d have fallen asleep.\u00a0<\/p>

After an eternity of butchering my rabbi\u2019s history lesson and best wishes for the Jewish people, I got to the end of the page. The crowd\u2019s anticipation for this mutual torture to end could had been cut with a butter knife.<\/p>

And then, I turned to page two.<\/p>

The sigh of despair that went through that poor audience is something I will never forget. Needless to say, public speaking would be associated in my head with humiliation from then on.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Stuttering, Public Speaking Anxiety and Social Anxiety<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Many people find it difficult to speak in front of people. The fear of public speaking (or public speaking anxiety) is called glossophobia<\/a>. It is estimated that three of every four people experience this anxiety to varying degrees.\u00a0<\/p>

For some people, the fear of public speaking is worse than the fear of death! It\u2019s easy to understand why this fear is so deep and common once we understand that our prehistoric ancestors relied on living in a group as a survival skill against the harsh elements and large predators. Public speaking exposes us to being rejected from the tribe, which in our prehistoric mind meant one thing: death.<\/p>

Public speaking anxiety is a type of Social Anxiety Disorder (or SAD). In very broad strokes, while both revolve around the fear of being judged or humiliated, social anxiety is a persistent fear of social situations generally, and public speaking anxiety is focused on specific scenarios of speaking in front of a group of people.<\/p>

Stuttering and SAD often share many of the same features. We all know these very well: avoidance of feared situations, hyper-sensitivity to our speech and to people\u2019s reactions to it, anxiety and negative thoughts before talking, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

These similarities can be explained by the biases we have when processing information during these stressful situations. In simple words, we focus more on our fears and negative inputs in these situations, rather than the positive inputs. This is a core feature that both people who stutter and people with SAD share.<\/p>

Before you start panicking though, if your symptoms solely revolve around your stutter, you\u2019re not going to be diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder.<\/p>

That said, there have been many studies about stuttering and SAD that found an alarming correlation:\u00a0<\/p>

Between a quarter to two-thirds of people who stutter meet the criteria for social anxiety disorder.<\/strong><\/p>

Want to test how much social anxiety you have? Check the source links at the bottom.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Stuttering VS fear of public speaking<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Many years after my bar mitzvah experience<\/a>, I stumbled across a Youtube video analysing a situation of a man hyperventilating as he tried to address a large committee. I thought to myself, \u201cHey, that\u2019s what often happens to me when I have a bad stuttering day\u201d. This similarity got me curious, so I started researching it and it led me to look for a beginners\u2019 public speaking group. I had already jumped through many \u201crings of fire\u201d<\/a> and I felt I was ready for this challenge.\u00a0<\/p>

In these public speaking practice sessions I got the chance to meet a lot of people who have public speaking anxiety. I found it fascinating how similar public speaking anxiety is to what happens in the head (and sometimes the body) of a person who stutters.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The physical aspects<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Some of the symptoms they talk about can be attributed to general stress or excitement that are not necessarily speech-related; things that everyone experiences like pounding or fast heartbeat, blushing, butterflies in the stomach, sweaty or cold hands, muscle tenseness, etc. Other stress symptoms can manifest themselves in the speaking system as well, like a constant urge to clear the throat, and cracking or changing of the voice. In all these cases, people are aware of what\u2019s happening to their speaking ability but feel they\u2019re not in control of it; much like with a stammer.<\/p>\n

There are also external physical nervousness symptoms people with public speaking anxiety have during their speeches. It\u2019s not uncommon to see people in the group speak while knowingly or unknowingly pacing back and forth, constantly pulling their shirts, leaning on things, speaking very quickly or monotonously, etc. It takes them a conscious effort to notice and control these behaviours. They don\u2019t actually need to do them, but it\u2019s their body\u2019s way of dealing with the uncomfortable situation; sounds familiar, right?<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t it remind you of all those secondary stuttering behaviours<\/a>, all those things we do with our bodies, sometimes subconsciously, that for some reason we feel would help us get through uncomfortable stuttering situations?
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For example, sometimes I catch myself walking while I\u2019m on the phone, and I\u2019m limping on certain words, as if it\u2019ll help me to get the words out. Then I’m immediately thinking \u201cwhy did I just do that\u201d?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Psychological aspects<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This is where it really hits home. The similarity of the psychological aspects of public speaking anxiety and stuttering is astonishing. When listening to someone talk about their mental stress about public speaking, it sounds exactly as if they were talking about stuttering. Here are just a few of the examples people shared with me:<\/p>\n