Prologue

Prologue:

My name is Drew and I'm a stutterer. I was going to name this document" "How I Conquered Stuttering" but I realized that you can never truly conquer stuttering, any more than you can grow back an amputated arm. The best you can do is hold it at bay - or cage it. Stuttering is a physical condition and can not be reversed. However, a one-armed person can lead a normal life by utilizing the natural tendency for the human body to compensate for the loss of function that arm represented. You also can rewire your mind to compensate for the physical condition of stuttering that I was and, to some extent am, afflicted with.

I'm a stutterer. I'm also a Vice President, Consulting for a firm that does sales and marketing consulting for accounting firms across the country. My profession is based around communication. To some extent it is communication. Who'd a thunk it?

I know that that there are many forms of stuttering so I apologize that the only empirical evidence that I have are my own experiences. The following paper describes the mental technique that allowed me to cage my particular type of stuttering. I have had success with this technique to the extent that I have known people for years who are not even aware I'm a stutterer. I talk to persons of authority, talk on the phone, speak in front of groups of people and give presentations to key influencers of my future. All without any indication that, unless you knew what to look for, not fifteen years ago I couldn't get a sentence out to my best friend without having to struggle at least once to get over a stumbling block or "Wall" as I refer to the stuttering points in the spoken sentence.

If you are reading this you are probably a stutterer, the relation of a stutterer or a someone that works to help stutterers with their impediment. For the stutterers, I hope that you can use my mental tool to vault over the Wall the same way I did. For those related to stutterers I hope that you come away with a better understanding of what your loved one is going through, and for those that help stutterers I hope this gives you another tool to succeed.