REPROGRAM YOUR STUTTERING - 2: The Stutter Mechanisms

THE MECHANISMS BEHIND STUTTERING

The mechanism of speech block follows the same pattern as with panic anxiety,
and can be described with the same type of visual illustration as the so called
“threat vortex”, here called

This process is completely subconscious, and the time span from trigger to speech block is a couple of seconds. Just as in panic anxiety, the avoidance behavior is what reinforces the vicious circle, making it continue and to become more and more vicious.

Typical avoidance behaviors are to avoid certain initial letters or certain words, avoiding certain types of situations, diverting the attention of others with jokes, trying to break one’s inner tension with unnecessary gestures, grimacing, etc.

The Trigger has often an origin in childhood experiences, and/or in a conditioned self-image due to that some have frequently described oneself in negative terms. This first trigger, “Experiencing the Threat” can be something that happens in the external world or within oneself, like the thought of something that might happen. The Trigger is not consciously experienced, on the contrary the external or internal image activates, via neurologic direct connection, those parts of the brain that have the primary function of helping us to react quickly on real threats: amygdala and hippocampus, in the rear parts of the brain, just above the spinal cord.

Through a subconsciously learnt programming, a conditioned reflex is now activated, the first result of which is a body state. This can be a tension in the shoulders or the stomach, a quick inhalation and subsequent holding of the breath, a sudden contraction of the blood vessels in the skin, or something similar. This happens quickly, from 0,01 to 0,1 seconds, and the cognitive functions of the frontal brain lobes have not even started to work. No conscious thoughts or emotions have as yet been registered.

After 1 to 2 seconds the cognitive functions of the brain start to work, and the brain now interprets the body state. Note: the interpretation is not based on what is happening in the outer world, the interpretation is based on the body state only. As the cognitive interpretation comes from the conditioned reflex of the body, the so called somatic markers, an over-interpretation now takes place, or a completely erroneous interpretation.

After another 1 to 2 seconds of cognitive processing the brain now activates the rest of the body, and one acts. Through both learnt behavior and genetic inheritance, this action is often based on the so called “protection reflexes” flee, freeze or attack. Most animals react instinctively in one or more of these ways when threatened. The action is aimed at warding off or avoiding the “threat” and is therefore called “avoidance behavior”.

The Avoidance Behavior, which in most cases is the result of a subconscious interpretation, is also characterized as being a conditioned reflex. It can, and often does, work short term (diverting attention, avoiding the situation completely, finding another word, finding some other way of producing a sound, etc). But, the avoidance behavior has a negative impact in the long run: as its origin is not consciously recognized, it makes the “experience of the threat” to increase.

Which then increases the body reaction, which then increases the erroneous interpretation, which then increases the avoidance behavior, which then … etc, etc in a vortex rotating faster and faster, and which in a couple of seconds leads to a emotionally, mentally and bodily blocked state - the speech block.

Traditional speech training has its focus on one of the stages of the speech block vortex, the muscular tension, and does not in general focus at all on the other stages, and has of this reason a limited effectiveness.

Watch the video below, which comes from the e-course Get Unstuck, and which describes a more general case of the Speech Block Vortex - the Blocking Vortex.
Even if the presention is not about stuttering per se, but about the more general case of becoming emotionally blocked, the same priciples apply.

(Psychosynthesis Therapist Lars Gimstedt, 13 minutes.)

The Stuttering Hexagon

The inner state of the Speech Block is a complex one, and can be described with the figure below, ”The Stuttering Hexagon”, where the complex connections and the interdependence of a number of involved factors is illustrated:

The learnt and conditioned inner state that the Speech Block Vortex ends up in,
also often meets the “PPP Criteria”:

Personal: One experiences one’s lack of ability as a personal trait, and tends to identify oneself with it - ”There is something wrong with my ability to speak,
and there is something wrong with me as well…”

Penetrates everything: One generalizes one’s speech dysfunction to all other life areas. The stuttering influences the self-image, so that one may give up ideas of high level education or professional training, one may avoid social gatherings, one may become inhibited in relating to the other sex.

Permanent: After having tried to overcome the stutter and the speech block for many years, one ends up believing that the condition is permanent -
”I have been stuttering since I was a kid. I have spent thousands of hours and thousand dollars, and I am still stuttering…”

All of these P:s are of course false.

As the first exercise in this course, affirm
( = say it to yourself as often as possible)
the following three ”P:s” :