Pakistan Stammering Association

Karachi Support Group Meeting - the beginning to many more in 2008!

Yet another great meeting. We talked about "avoidance" and how it is a skill we, persons who stammer are excellent at. Be it a situation, like ordering food, and asking friends or family to order for you, or ordering the same meal your friend ordered, or pointing to the menu item instead of saying it. It could be switching one word for another because it was easier to say, staying at the fringes of conversation and telling everyone that you're a quiet person, not answering questions in class even though you know the answers, or not asking questions at all, even though you're unclear on the subject matter and would like something clarified. Whatever the strategy for avoidance, we know we have many!!! :) What we discussed was how these behaviors only increase our fear of doing that particular action that we avoided, rather than improve the situation. We must aim to say whatever we want, whenever we want, and not worry about whether we stutter or not, if we want to overcome it. We adopted the philosophy of "Avoid Avoidance"!

Some articles that we distributed amongst the group were from the British Stammering Association's website:

• Information for Adults who Stammer
• Using the telephone
• The Child who Stammers - Information for Parents

Thank you all so much! Stay strong and make it a great day!

Julia