It is estimated that about 5% of children and 2% of adults stutter. In fact, the onset of stuttering generally occurs between the ages of two and seven.
In some cases, alterations in children's speech resolve spontaneously, but in 20% of cases, they become chronic.
What is Stuttering or Dysphemia
what is dysphemia
Dysphemia is a disorder of fluency and temporal structuring of speech that is not appropriate for the person's age. They are frequent repetitions or prolongations of sounds or syllables, although they can also manifest through other alterations in the fluency of speech, such as pauses within a word, silent or sound blockages, the substitution of certain words for others that are avoided, and the use of interjections. Excessive physical tension is also seen when pronouncing certain words or during the repetition of monosyllables.
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In fact, there are different types of stuttering :
tonic stuttering Speech stops completely because you need to catch your breath. After a few minutes, you blurt out all the words, and then fall silent again.
Clone stuttering. You repeat some syllables when you speak, involuntarily. Although you try to control it, you can't as the words come out explosively.
Tonic-clonic stuttering. It is the most common type of dysphemia, in which the characteristics of the previous ones are combined.
Symptoms of dysphemia
You are likely to stutter if you have any of these symptoms:
You repeat sounds, parts of words, or even whole words as you speak.
You make long pauses between one word and another or sometimes within the same word.
You leave incomplete sentences because you feel frustrated.
You include a lot of interjections while you speak because you anticipate that you will have trouble pronouncing.
Talking causes you tension, discomfort, anguish, and anxiety, especially in front of unknown people.
You avoid speaking in public for fear of stuttering and others forming a negative image of you.
You have tics or involuntary movements of the face that only manifest when you speak.
You feel as if you are short of breath while you speak.
Causes of stuttering
Stuttering is a bio-psycho-social disorder, which means that psychological, biological, and social causes are at its base. It has been seen that different areas are activated in the brain of people with dysphemia compared to people who speak fluently, and it is also known that there are genetic factors so that if one of your parents has suffered from stuttering, you have more likely to develop this problem.
stuttering treatment
However, psychological factors have a great weight in the onset and maintenance of dysphemia. In fact, stuttering does not imply difficulty in pronouncing since these people are able to pronounce all the words fluently when they are alone or when they get used to a situation and their level of anxiety decreases. However, when they meet strangers or are in stressful situations, their fluency decreases, blocking some words.
It is known that when the child who stutters feels socially evaluated, he will begin to suffer from anticipatory anxiety and start avoiding mechanisms to try not to stutter, which will give rise to incorrect speech habits that are often maintained in adulthood and which are more difficult to eradicate
Anxiety, for example, precipitates stuttering in people who already have a genetic predisposition. In addition, it has been appreciated that when the disorder already exists, anxiety-producing situations aggravate it, to the point of causing some people to become so blocked that they practically cannot speak.
Actually, a large part of stuttering depends on the mechanisms that the person activates to avoid becoming blocked. Every time you face a social situation, the ghosts of the past are awakened and you relive the bad experiences, which generates even more anxiety and causes you to fall into a vicious circle. Thus, she develops a hypervigilant attitude that makes her notice the first signs of anxiety, shame, frustration, and anger, making her even more anxious, which generates the block that she tries to avoid.
Of course, there are also social factors that contribute to aggravating the problem. If the child's first episodes of stuttering made him the center of humiliation and teasing from his peers, it is likely that he has begun to feel ashamed of himself. Parental punishments and pressure to speak fluently usually only add fuel to the fire.
Consequences of dysphemia
Stuttering is not the consequence of a psychological disorder, but it can become the basis for the development of emotional problems. A person who has had to fight against this problem all his life without finding a solution can suffer serious damage to his self-esteem since he perceives that he has no degree of control over the situation.
On the other hand, the control of speech is of enormous importance in social relationships, so continuous failures in this sphere usually generate great frustration in the person, as well as feelings of guilt and hostility. In addition, the incorrect emotional management of those feelings will end up causing even more damage to interpersonal relationships. Because of this, people with stutters tend to isolate themselves and are only comfortable in very restricted social settings. In some cases, the avoidance of social situations can reach the point of triggering a social phobia.
Stuttering can also lead to problems at school and work, especially when making public speeches.
Treatment of stuttering with hypnosis
At El Prado Psychologists we focus on you, we work to discover and eliminate both the origin of stuttering and the factors that maintain it. Our treatment focuses on the psychological factors that underlie stuttering, so it is compatible and complementary with the treatment of a speech therapist or speech therapist.
We use different techniques so that you can eliminate the anxiety associated with speaking. Some of them are:
Clinical hypnosis. In dysphemia, there are two mutually reinforcing factors: anticipatory anxiety and incorrect speech habits. Through hypnosis, we can address both problems. With this technique, we send new messages to the unconscious mind and reprogram what is known as emotional triggers. We also use a series of hypnotic suggestions that promote a sense of calm and security. In addition, we offer you reinforcement exercises to do at home with the self-hypnosis that we recorded for you.
EMDR. It is likely that you have some experiences related to dysphemia that mark you and come to mind every time you speak. These experiences are conditioning you negatively and add an extra dose of stress, so it is essential that you leave them behind. Through Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing we access those negative experiences related to stuttering and help your brain to reprocess them so that it no longer activates them or considers them anxiety-producing.
Display. Through visualization we make you feel more comfortable in situations that normally generate stress. By imagining different scenarios, you will be able to control the anxiety that triggers speech blocks, while at the same time regaining your confidence.
relaxation techniques Through techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and the Wintreber method, you will be able to achieve a state of relaxation of the general and vocal muscles, which will allow you to improve the fluency of speech and relief tension.
Breathing techniques. With the diaphragmatic breathing technique, you will not only be able to relieve stress but you will also improve your respiratory capacity and achieve a correct regulation of the phono-respiratory process.
