But wait holding back isn’t the only cause.. well in the beginning it was the only cause for me, but later down the road another cause came into my life. Yes I said another cause. For me there was soon not just 1 cause but 2 causes. During the time I was clueless about both causes. When the 2nd cause came into my life my stuttering & speech became a lot worse.

Well you are probably asking now ”What is the 2nd cause??” Well remember that because I was stuttering/blocking I started to not trust my speech. So what happened because of that lack of trust was I started to do a behavior that caused me to stutter/block even more. Ok here is the cause of my stuttering/blocking – I started to consciously try to manufacture words with my tongue & mouth & I would pre plan sentences in my head then speak. (Where I got the idea to do this was from traditional speech therapy teachings) The cause was Effortful speech. At the time & for many years I spoke like this, effortfully. The more effort the more pre planning the worse my speech.

During those years I did not know the causes.
But now with the knowledge I have now about stuttering I am confident in the causes.

There were two things causing my stuttering 1. Holding back. 2. Speaking in a effortful way. (Not speaking naturally)

Not too long ago I really made progress in letting go & in speaking naturally. My speech has been more fluent than it has ever been.

Currently I am still getting used to speaking naturally without effort.. & to be honest I am still skeptical if this is the correct way to speak.. but so far it’s working. I am just stubborn. Old habits & beliefs die hard I guess.. after all I was speaking for half my life in an effortful way. I also am learning to let go rather hold back which has affected my speech positively as well.

– Christian