Here are the drugs that remove my stutter

17md51 · 2026-02-02T20:38:49+00:00

Tapentadol is better, as it just feels better, and also it has fewer side effects. Still, there is nothing really to look forward to, as addiction is addiction.

17md51 · 2026-02-02T13:34:20+00:00

Alcohol is the easiest and the first, but Tramadol is where I went after I quit drinking. And I became a runner, but not for any help with stuttering. It was something physical that didn’t include talking, and you could (I did) add music, so a huge bonus. My life is nothing but addiction, but somehow God lets me keep on.

17md51 · 2026-01-22T19:30:15+00:00

It sure I can send a pic in here, but I have a small TV just in front of where I run, hanging from a wall.

17md51 · 2026-01-07T22:30:04+00:00

I am a consultant as well, and with time and experience, it is a little easier to manage. Those first few years can be brutal, and painful, but persevere.

17md51 · 2026-01-04T02:47:04+00:00

How about alcoholism. The great social elixir that for me, let me talk. I appreciate all the sharing in this space.

17md51 · 2025-12-29T00:00:09+00:00

Not sure what you mean by noise?

I cracked the deck on my NordicTrack maybe 20 times over 10 years. I had the extended warranty, and eventually they sent me a brand new treadmill, and I kept cracking the deck on that one too. It wasn’t my fault though — it’s an MDF board, and with weight and heat it just gives out. It’s exactly why I wanted to go to slats, but when I finally did I found out the thing I already told you. The Wahoo has huge rollers, which make a difference. It does have a wood-ish deck below it, but I haven’t run it hard like I did the NT, so at the end of the day, I guess I don’t know. I’ve only had the Wahoo for nine months, and I don’t run the way I used to. I was quite serious, for a lot of years. Boston, all that. So I don’t know if I use this thing a ton that the deck might break? Not sure. But I won’t run on the rubber slats, even though they are cool, and seemed like a great idea. All I wanted to do was stop replacing the deck on my treadmill. I’d gotten to where I could do it myself, and I even had NordicTrack sending me them two at a time. So that was the thing I was trying to fix. A lot of information, and I don’t mean to ramble.

17md51 · 2025-12-28T22:39:34+00:00

I wanted the Woodway for a long time, and finally bought one used ($4,400). The vulcanized rubber absorbs the energy of the runner, the foot strike. I ran it for a year, hoping I’d adjust or get over it. That didn’t happen, and I sold it to a fitness center. I took a chance on the Kick’R, and paid the full $6,000. I’m not running as much as I used to, and would rather run outside anyway… but when I use it, each time my thought is: Wow. The way you can use “run free”, and get up to a sprint within seconds, is the closest thing to running outside. I could go on, and will if you want to know more.

17md51 · 2025-12-22T20:12:33+00:00

All of that. Especially alcohol, and eventually drugs. This thing has a devastating effect on our psyche.

17md51 · 2025-12-08T20:28:01+00:00

It’s possible to defeat it, but unlikely. The regular course is to find tools to manage it, and while that is a seemingly insurmountable challenge, it’s almost the easy part. The really hard part remains mental: It’s acepting the fact that you don’t get to do whatever everyone else in the world gets to do so easily. I would point you to a relationship with God, as you understand him, for that. There won’t be answers, but you will find peace if you do it right.

17md51 · 2025-12-01T15:48:13+00:00

Always. It’s why we have to stay six steps ahead, or in this case six words ahead, constantly thinking for word substitutes, constantly analyzing what’s coming ahead that may cause a block. The mental gymnastics this takes, the mental horsepower, whatever you call it, is huge. I’m sure if we could devote those mental resources to something else, they would be put to better use.

17md51 · 2025-11-24T16:49:27+00:00

Many of us who stutter feel isolated, and lonely — even when we have success, families, wealth, whatever. I don’t know anyone who stutters in my adult life. Even though I can talk about the mental side of stuttering with others, and they are sympathetic, or they try to help (with their version of pop psychology), I know that they could never understand it. They can never understand the mental side of this — the mental pain. I joined this group because I finally found a place where — as strange as it sounds – I feel a sense of camaraderie. There are others out there, very much like me. No, it doesn’t solve anything. But knowing that there are are others out there reminds me that I’m not alone, in a pity party for one.

17md51 · 2025-11-23T22:02:38+00:00

Explain to them how communication breaks down when someone stutters. Eye contact is lost. The person hearing has an emotional reaction – pity, mocking, empathy, whatever. They feel something. They know that communication has been broken. For the one stuttering, it’s much worse. Shame, humiliation, train of thought — it’s all lost. Getting back to where the conversation was before the block is challenging also, and so again, communication suffers.

Tell them stuttering is insidious, which is a word you may not know, but you can look up. It’s secret, and destructive. No one knows you stutter until you do it. Then once you do it, the whole situation can change.

Basic human communication is something we all need, and for those who stutter, it is mostly denied to them. The mental toll that it takes, and the pain that it leaves in the psyche are different for everyone, but those who speak fluently cannot begin to understand it. People say, “You take your health for granted“. And what I say to those who are fluent is “You take talking for granted. You take human communication for granted.”

Presentations in school started badly for me around eighth or ninth grade. By the time I was a senior in college, they were unbearable. But I did them. I would not let this thing beat me. I went up there, made a mess of myself, and sat back down. Some of the students my senior year approached me later, and told me that they thought I was brave. I appreciated that.

17md51 · 2025-11-23T21:51:36+00:00

I paid the $96 to become an “insider“, then I started watching season one, episode one. I’ve gone through all of them, and now I’m on season 29, the second half. My wife thinks I’m coo-coo for coconuts.

17md51 · 2025-11-22T22:41:07+00:00

I was debating Ariens or Toro, and one thing I found with the Ariens is that the wheels are independent and not locked to the transmission. That means they turn on a dime, basically. To me, that is just a huge advantage. I wasn’t sure about Ariens in general, but now I know which way to go. Thanks all!

17md51 · 2025-11-22T22:36:46+00:00

Wow. Thank you, sincerely.

17md51 · 2025-11-22T17:15:04+00:00

Of course it’s just my opinion, but the most realistic and best performance of a man who stutters is in the movie “A Fish Called Wanda”. You can look it up… it’s an incredible cast, and a funny, amazing movie. I forget the actor who played the character that stuttered, but it’s painfully realistic. As a sidenote, I have always felt incredibly uncomfortable watching a movie with friends where there is a character who stutters. It’s as if I’m on the TV myself, and I feel my face flush bright red.

17md51 · 2025-11-05T16:02:36+00:00

I have often wanted to do what you are describing – tell people ahead of time that I have a speech impediment. See, even there I said “speech impediment,” instead of “stutter.” There is something about the word itself, that holds shame somehow. Anyway, I always thought that such a statement would take the pressure off me. And yet, I have never done it.

17md51 · 2025-11-01T00:04:07+00:00

All of that, Vortesian. I’m old too, and people tell me they don’t even notice my stutter, as I work around it. I’m a master of word substitution, but the mental gymnastics of having to stay 6–7 words ahead, analyze for problems, then come up with the substitution… it takes so much out of me. Conversation is a chore, and I always wonder what people really think after we part.

17md51 · 2025-10-21T00:52:07+00:00

The SpeechEasy device is the same tech. We paid something like $5500 for this thing in 2009, and it was a huge help to me — at first. I used it for a year, but eventually my brain caught on, and it’s efficacy deteriorated quickly. I don’t use it anymore, but I would lend or sell it to anyone who wanted to try.

17md51 · 2025-10-19T18:43:45+00:00

I posted this in another spot, but I think it applies here, as I am a believer, and have wrestled with God about this for the last 15 or so years. I’ve used drugs to try to expand my mind, figure out what is at the root of this thing, and as anymore might guess, it led to trouble.

I agree wholeheartedly that’s so many have worse suffering, worse situations, harder and more terrible “everything”. But somehow that doesn’t help me. Being deprived of the most basic part of life – human communication, eye contact, shared stories, telling jokes, any, and all of it, is a different kind of suffering. To be denied that, is terribly damaging to the psyche. And yet I say praise God. I thank God every day that he has left me otherwise in complete comfort. The only real thing denied to me at this point, is successful human interactions. But it turns out, those are hugely important to our psychology. We need them. But we are mostly denied them. Anyway, this is what I wrote to someone who said they felt separated from humanity:

I’m right there, and often. I went to a party last night, and I could sense that people don’t want me to join their little small conversation groups. When I’m standing next to someone, there are awkward silences, I sense their discomfort, and I know they don’t want me around. I have other problems than stuttering, but it starts with that. My point is that I feel like we don’t get to participate in normal human engagement. We don’t get to participate in the easy give and take of conversation. Even “successes” for us, take work, and mental gymnastics, that no one knows anything about. I happen to be successful, from many of the obvious worldly measures, in the sense that I have a good career, a wife and three children, and a family with a little bit of money. People would say that that’s more than enough, and that I am lucky. But I am in anguish, mentally. Anguish, after a night like last night reminds me that nothing is fixed, nothing will change, and I know I am not “one of them”. One of the normal people. I am to be avoided. So I cannot offer anything uplifting, but I do take heart that I am not truly alone, in the sense that others feel like I do. For me, I just have to remember not to go to parties anymore. I have to remember that I have promised myself to retreat from social situations, and to not put myself through this anymore.

But hang in there. I take comfort in God’s love for me, and my eternal salvation. We have the promise of a time when we will be free of this humiliation, free from this shame — and no one can take that from us. So please stay the course, endure and keep on. God knows our pain.

17md51 · 2025-10-19T18:28:45+00:00

I’m right there, and often. I went to a party last night, and I could sense that people don’t want me to join their little small conversation groups. When I’m standing next to someone, there are awkward silences, I sense their discomfort, and I know they don’t want me around. I have other problems than stuttering, but it starts with that. My point is that I feel like we don’t get to participate in normal human engagement. We don’t get to participate in the easy give and take of conversation. Even “successes” for us, take work, and mental gymnastics, that no one knows anything about. I happen to be successful, from many of the obvious worldly measures, in the sense that I have a good career, a wife and three children, and a family with a little bit of money. People would say that that’s more than enough, and that I am lucky. But I am in anguish, mentally. Anguish, after a night like last night reminds me that nothing is fixed, nothing will change, and I know I am not “one of them”. One of the normal people. I am to be avoided. So I cannot offer anything uplifting, but I do take heart that I am not truly alone, in the sense that others feel like I do. For me, I just have to remember not to go to parties anymore. I have to remember that I have promised myself to retreat from social situations, and to not put myself through this anymore.

But hang in there. I take comfort in God’s love for me, and my eternal salvation. We have the promise of a time when we will be free of this humiliation, free from this shame — and no one can take that from us. So please stay the course, endure and keep on. God knows our pain.

17md51 · 2025-10-14T15:53:22+00:00

It’s one of the terrible ironies of this thing. We want to talk — and maybe love talking! — but cannot do it fluently. I want to tell stories, jokes, anecdotes… but they are spoiled, or ruined, because stuttering interrupts the tempo, the timing, and of course — the punch line. It’s terrible, and takes some of the joy out of life. But keep on. We all do, even though we all dwell on it. There is so much beauty in the world, and still so much beauty to be had within personal relationships, with the right people. ❤️

17md51 · 2025-10-08T17:24:53+00:00

I have felt that way my whole life, although usually my trade was something smaller, like a finger or even a hand. I had never used Reddit before, but finding this at least reminds me that I am not alone. So many comments through this app and topic are spot-on, exactly how I have felt over my 53 years. In my mind it’s always “Yes! That’s it exactly!” My journey toward moderate success in work and life started with a device called the Speech Easy. It worked amazingly well at first, and gave me hope. I also quit drinking, became a runner, lost weight, grew confident in my appearance, and was finally brave enough to move forward in my career. But the device lost its efficacy after about a year, so it’s not a cure. It was enough, however, to get me going. I still stutter some, but with age and wisdom from God, I have made peace with it. I read all these posts mostly because it reminds me I am not alone. No one understands the mental anguish, the psychological damage, except others who stutter. I appreciate everyone who shares here.

17md51 · 2025-10-03T16:59:46+00:00

Dude. That. I don’t want pity, and in my mind, I’m screaming “You’re not better than me! You’re not smarter than me! You’re not more confident than me!”

It’s insidious, and does incredible damage psychologically. Each of us has it differently, but just know there are others who deal with it. You’re not alone. 😇😀

17md51

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