Stuttering
 

My stutter goes completely away at times. At other times it is VERY pronounced when any of these occur

• I have not slept well
• I have had severe head pain
• I have high emotional response to something
  
  Or
  
  
• My brain is maxed out by cognition
  

Neuro psych says this is VERY odd. He says with speech issues due to injury it is usually always or never. No in between. He says it's very puzzling.

My question: does this on/off stutter happen to anyone else?

I keep thinking I can control it if I just tried harder and yet I fail every time.

I disagree with him. Stress can cause any kind of symptoms.

There are plenty of NeuroPsychs who have different biases and mixed beliefs about concussions.

I also disagree with him.

I will sometimes even go so far as respeat whole sentences, or even repeat phrases in the middle of something I am saying, as if its part of what Im discussing......I did this in my I.M.E. with the Psychiatrist for SSDI, he just stared at me, and began note-taking, no comments, while I was totally stressed........my drive home was, well, I'm still awaiting news......

Mark is correct. Stress, and our brains.......its a whole ball of wax, remodeling itself to fit its new self, and stress just bothers its remodeling process all along the way.

Fluctuating symptoms, aka the roller coaster, is very common for PCS. I find it "odd" that he doesn't know that. Then again, we probably know more about concussion/TBI than most doctors just from reading this forum.

It comes and goes for me too. It's much worse when I'm under stress or if my brain is flooded from overstimulation. Just the other night, I spit on the ground in front of a store and the security guard almost stepped in it, so I said "Careful not to spit...sit...STEP in it".

Ugh, it's embarrassing. But...what can we do??? :Oops:

As you can see...you're not alone. So I hope just knowing that will make you feel a little better.

Peace,

Nick

I stutter, repeat, and pause a lot. Some days are worse than others. If I am over stimulated my speech is poor.

Me too, it only kicks in when I am tired or stressed

yea it seems to be on and off for me as well, like most symptoms I believe its a response to whatever triggers one might have

I do it occasionally. For me it might be a trigger. Mostly I think it is related to the slow processing speed I deal with. If I am focusing really hard and trying to be very specific is when it is noticeable.

Thanks everybody. Helps me feel validated. The neuro psych did not.

My stutter is a legit stutter that "sounds" like I'm faking it or something because its so acute when it hits.

It's "I I I I I I I can't nnnnnremember if if nnnnnnn if if if I I I I nnnnnn locked the nnnnnndoor" for example.

And then other times I have no stutter at all. Sometimes slowed annunciation (slight slurring) but not very often.

Having to prove you have a genuine symptom to a medical person seems to be a common problem amongst us

That sounds horribly frustrating msRrio! I have it where i can't think of words and stutter a little when stressed or having a bad day but not like that.

I don't understand why doctors or people don't believe us or our symptoms but yet we all have the same ones! Each of us has our own unique grouping of issues but most of the main symptoms are very common. How can we all be making it up/exaggerating/lying?

Its obviously real.

CC

MsRrio,

You might ask your doctor for a prescription of an anti-seizure med. Neurontin (gabapentin) or some of the old standbys like phenobarbital or phenytoin (Dilantin). I was on both in high school (1971-2) and they settled my brain down. It sounds like your brain gets caught struggling and loses control of the timing processes needed to control a natural flow of information and speech.

The added stress of your son's struggles likely makes this brain stress much worse.

My best to you.

Speech problems
 

Ms rio,
I have major speech slurring and some stuttering or like a shaky voice when I get real nervous. Looks like it is normal for all of us. No worries. I know it is embarrassing though.
:hug:

Thanks Mark. I'm interested in what you think of the other symptom that accompanies the stutter sometimes. It's a very strong pressure in the middle of my forehead, sort of down into my sinuses almost, like a strong painful pulling sensation.

Wondering if this is related or just concurrent pain from trying to process speech. Probably just coincidence?

You're right about stress. The week since the neuro psych day has been torturous and a very disheartening setback. I feel consistently worse than I did even at two months post injury. Month three and four have sucked.

Next appt to see GP is Friday, will bring up meds again. Will try to remember.

My speech therapist specializes in traumatic brain injury. When I first started the therapy, she said that I should expect to have more problems when I am stressed, tired, or under cognitive strain. Being relaxed, explaining something that I have said repeatedly (like how the injury happened) made my speech almost like it was before the accident.

I was really amazed at how much the speech therapy really helped. The breathing techniques and learning transitions from one syllable to another and easy onset of words made a huge difference. After a while I was able to self-correct. Now, unless I am exhausted or have not planned what I want to say, no one suspects that I ever had a stutter.

I wouldn't be concerned if the neurologist is not familiar with this, but your speech therapist says something different, I would look for a new speech therapist -- one with experience treating patients with TBI.

By the way, I found that "trying harder" almost always made the stuttering worse. Learning to relax and learning the techniques to deal with the aspects of speech I found difficult were key to getting past the stuttering.

Describes me perfectly
 

These symptoms describe me perfectly! Does it get better? How long does it take?

Mbolin,

MsRio has not been around in quite some time. It took a while but she did improve.

One of the common problems with stuttering after a concussion is the more we stress out about the symptoms, the worse that symptom becomes. The brain gets overloaded with stress chemicals and goes haywire.

Many of us have learned relaxation skills to help our body and mind settle down so we can perform a little better. For me, it usually starts with taking a slow deep breath. Then, I rehearse what i want to say in mind. It helps but does not always solve the problem. It may just take time to heal.

My best to you.

Yep me too.

How do they not know this?

You overload a computer with work and it won't be very responsive will it?

To further the analogy, you drop your computer on the floor, and then overload it with work, it's going to be even less responsive :)

MsR,

I thought I was all done stuttering at one point then it reappeared. Now when stressed or overloaded it starts up again. Stressor is gone and stuttering is gone.

Happens all the time again so your doc as seems to be the case with many is clueless.

Bud

I don't know anything about stuttering as a result from trauma. But with the more common form of stuttering starting in childhood there seems to be a strong genetic component. Some researchers now think it may stem from a little to much dopomine and or not quite enough gaba ?

Any way it's been found that about 30% of people who stutter get a lot of help from taking 100mg of vitamin B1 3 times a day. It works best when taken by itself not as a multivitamin. But sometimes taking some magnesium is necessary for it to work. And the substance tannin in coffee and tea interfere with absorbing B1. When this works it works fast the effect is noticeable in a few days and if no improvement is noticed in 2 weeks it just isn't going to work for you. Note I said 100mg 3 times a day taking it all at once just isn't as good. What this may do is raise your gaba levels a little bit.

Now something I found that makes me stutter more is using fish oil supplements. It seems that omega3 fatty acids may raise your dopomine just a little bit. Well as I said this is just for the common form of stuttering and it only helps about 30% of those that try it. But heck a $4 bottle of B1 last me month. For more info just google stutering and thiamine .

Ditto . . . fatigue, poor sleep, sensory overload and stress all contribute to stuttering. Even get inventive with my speech for no apparent reason too.

Cafe had 'dropped scones' on the menu and much to my friends amazement she heard me ask for a 'drone'
"What the hell is a drone?" she asked of me.
I did not need to answer, the girl behind the counter spoke for me
"We all know her here, it's a dropped scone she wants."

I was impressed as had not ordered this before. . . but as a regular before my accident . . . now anything had become acceptable.

I speak of the colour 'gream' (a cross between green and cream) commonly seen in flowers, ' messle and portar' confusing a few folk - The list goes on. Love it how my inventive language has caught on with some friends who now regularly use the colour 'gream' to describe flowers.

With language and stuttering I couldn't help noticing how it's the letters we first struggled with when learning to talk, b,p,f,w,t that caused the problems and still do when fatigued, overstimulated etc.