Stuttering

You know what you want to say. The sentence is there, fully formed, ready. And then — a stall. Getting stuck on a single sound, repeating it, a desperate attempt to get over an invisible threshold that has opened up in the middle of your mouth. The listeners are waiting. You feel their gaze, their patience, their awkward avoidance movements. And it is precisely this being-seen that makes the tightness even tighter.

Stuttering is not a speech defect in the true sense. People who stutter can in certain moments speak completely fluently — when they are alone, when they sing, when they address animals, when they recite a text from memory. The problem appears precisely where visibility is at stake. Where you yourself need to have a say. Where your voice is not just transporting information but you — you as a person, with your nature, your concern, your presence.