Up until a few years ago many of my friends and family used to call me “a stress head”. Why you may well be thinking? Well quite simply because I seemingly stressed about anything and everything.

So what was the cause of all of this stress? Most of the problems were probably due to the fact that I had a stammer/stutter. This speech impediment had developed when I was at the age of four. As you may well imagine it is something that destroyed my overall confidence levels. Therapy for stammering, at the time, was less than impressive which did not exactly help the situation.

My low self-esteem had a bad affect on many areas of my life, not just my speech. I would worry about what other people thought of me, I would stress about my height and my weight. I had a need or want, for some unknown reason, for people to like me. Looking back it all just sounds so crazy but it was like I was being controlled by some demonic force. It even affected my career which is within the cheap calls and dog insurance industries.

The turning point came as I entered into my twenties; it was time for a change and a big one at that. I could no longer live in this way – there surely had to be more to life than this.

I was soon to realise that I was the only person who was going to sort my life out.

I started to work very hard at learning how to increase self-esteem for example. I watched the way in which great fluent talkers spoke and tried to compare it with the way that I spoke. I hoped this would result in me finding the solution to my stuttering problem.

Progress was far from quick however after around a year of battling against my demons I did manage to overcome the stutter and I did manage to discover ways to stop me stressing – it is all about attitude and the way we approach life – think positive and believe in yourself!

Do you suffer from depression? Have you lost the will to live? Would you like to eradicate your depression once and for all? These are three questions that I would have certainly answered yes to a couple of years ago. I have however managed to eradicate the depression that plagued my life for so many years and am now able to live a happy and contented life.

Before I continue I would like to make it clear that I am by no way attempting to sell you anything here and that I am not some sort of depression therapist. I am actually involved on a daily basis with helping with business cost cutting and I also help people to obtain cheap calls to mobiles. I have a third role which is working with a company that offers cheap holidays.

The cause of my personal depression

I have to say that the main cause of my depression was due to the fact that I had a stutter. This speech impediment basically ruined my life for eighteen years and was something that would often leave me feeling quite sorry for myself.

I feared for my overall future. How would I be able to get on in the world with this frustrating stutter? I was fully aware of just how it would negatively impact on my prospects for employment, relationships with friends and members of the opposite sex and overall confidence/happiness.

The solution

I was very fortunate to meet a very educated man called Jason when I was aged twenty-two. He persuaded me to fight back against all of my demons and gave me the belief that I would be able to overcome the stutter, as well as eradicating the depression.

You need to believe in yourself, you need to understand that there is a lot of people in a worse position than you and you need to be thankful of what you do have rather than solely concentrating on what you do not have, explained Jason.

You should be willing to work extremely hard to improve your life and to beat this depression.

The result

I am pleased to report that after working extremely hard I was able to find a cure for stuttering and was also able to find happiness, the depression and stutter have both been eradicated for once and for all.

Growing up I had many things to be negative about, I had a stutter, I have a bald patch, I was overweight and am also quite short for a male at five foot four. I was one of the ones who walked around in a depressed state and I used to feel sorry for myself. Even when I write about it now, I laugh about how stupid I used to be.

As I entered into my twenties I was in real need to change the way in which I was living my life. I was quite fortunate in that I had a friend at the company (a front doors supplier), I worked for, who was to prove an inspiration to me. His name was Stuart, and even though this may seem cruel, Stuart did not have a lot going for him. I won’t go into details but lets just say even with the problems I felt I had, I was not jealous of him. I became quite good friends with Stuart and we would regularly have lunch together.

We would meet at around one o’clock and I would be stood there, no doubt looking gloomy, waiting for him to arrive. Arrive he certianly did, always with a beaming smile on his face. I could never quite work out how or why he had this attitude as for me was someone that had very little going for him. Whilst eating our food we would discuss various topics and I soon noticed about just how positive he was about everything. When he talked, he talked with passion, about his work and interests. One day it dawned on me, if Stuart (who from what I know of him, seemingly has nothing going for him) can always be positive, happy and smiling, why can’t I?

This was the beginning of my new outlook on life. An era of being positive, appreciating what I have got and more than anything else, plenty of smiles. I now am happy with my weight, height, bald patch and am proud to say I have now overcome my stuttering speech impediment. I also have a new career which is to do with offering people cheap hotel deals.

I hope this article proves to be of inspiration to at least some of its readers.

The importance of communication is well known; whether it be communication in the workplace, in a social environment or within the home, to be able to communicate with others in a fluid and cohesive manner is vital. So what about those people in the community who have a speech impediment and who therefore are unable to speak in a fluent way for this reason? Do you realise just how tough it is for people who have a stutter or stammer to become a success in life?

I was one such person, yes I had a stutter, in fact I had one for eighteen years of my life. Life back then (I have enjoyed the last thirteen years being able to talk fluently) was tough and what made it even more difficult to bear was the fact that people had no idea as to what I was going through. There was certainly a lack of care, or at least it seemed that way.

In my early twenties I was working for a rather large financial corporation in the UK. I had a rather basic role within the organization however was often appalled at the lack of communication skills within the higher management. These people were able to speak free from any form of speech impediment yet chose not to. This was of massive frustration to many of the staff but especially to myself for obvious reasons. It was as if they could not be bothered to pass on information or to advise of the changes within the business, verbally or via e-mail.

Having a stutter in the workplace was quite an experience; you certainly get to know who your real friends are. Stuttering, or stammering as some people call it, nearly ruined my life however I did eventually manage to achieve fluency. 

I have two pieces of advice for the readers of this article; firstly to the people who have a stutter – do not give up – if I can overcome my stutter then there is no reason why you can’t overcome yours. Secondly to the higher management of businesses – poor communication skills can often lead to lower profits therefore start communicating!

I now run a five day stuttering cure speech course. The courses are based in Birmingham, England.

Are you looking for techniques that can help you to eradicate your stutter? Has speech and language therapy or pathology been unable to help you to the levels that you require? Is second best no longer acceptable? The above three questions are ones that I would regularly answer in the positive during the eighteen years when I had a stutter. I was constantly looking for that miracle “stuttering cure”.

Now I am fully aware to call it a stuttering cure is not exactly what some people would call the “correct English” but I basically was looking for a way or a set of techniques that could enable me to “stop stuttering”. At there time there were not that many stuttering therapies out there, or at least not ones that were worthy of the name.

I always find it strange when I read about the so called National Associations for Stuttering or Stammering. For some reason they seem to always advise people to attend local speech and language therapy. Well that is a great referral! What is the point of asking people to attend speech therapy, something that has been unable to help them in the past? Speech therapy does not work for people who stutter, well not to the levels that they desire – again to stop stuttering completely and let’s face it anything else is to accept second best.

I searched high and low in my quest to find the solutions to stuttering. I read many a book, asked many a question and studied many of the “best talkers”.

I put in a massive amount of effort, hard work and dedication as that is what is required. The majority of people are fully aware and accept that there is not one magical pill that can cure a stutter. What is required is a desire to succeed and a willingness to work hard to ensure that the techniques become second nature.

There is now a seventy-minute film which has been produced by a DVD replication company in association with The How To Stop Stuttering Centre which has full explanations of the techniques required to achieve fluency.