DazedandConfused,

You are asking about two possibly three very different things.

Word finding is common with PCS. It often gets worse with stress. It is more tied to verbal memory/processing.

Stuttering is usually a different dysfunctional process in the brain. Stammering is not the same from a technical perspective although some try to use the terms interchangeably.

As packers says, slow down, and think about what you want to say before you speak. I find that when I have word finding problems, if I look around the room at different objects, I can break through the impasse. Trying to force the word out with the sentence tends to just jamb me up harder.

As mentioned, a speech therapist may shed some light on your stuttering or stammering. It will help to understand the difference between a stutter and a nervous stammer when you are trying to find words. It may help you be less anxious.

Please do not get caught up with the idea that your little bumps are concussions. You have to impact enough to manifest symptoms at the time of the impact for it to be a concussion. The bumps are just annoyances.

I have wrestled with speech issues (aphasia, apraxia, stuttering) since my TBI. Therapy really helped. The pathologist spent a lot of time working on my attention span and concentration. If I can focus, my speech improves. So, I'd say, get yourself accessed by a professional.

To be honest, I will never understand why people wonder if their deficits are a product of PCS or anxiety. Anxiety is a symptom of PCS. When you try and separate them, it's like saying, incorrectly, that some deficits aren't legitimate. I believe it's more accurate to remember that, we have anxiety because we have PCS, not PCS because we have anxiety.

Treating anxiety as a symptom, rather than a cause of PCS can help free patients from misplaced guilt and allow them to confront it without shame. TBI patients are no more at fault for their anxiety than they are for difficulties with convergence, tinnitus, lose of sense of smell, etc..., etc...,

For me slowing my speech down helped a lot, sort of gave my brain tIme to catch up with what was coming out of my mouth. Substituting 'whatever' for many words missing, unable to be pronounced, or misplaced (say flooding for swimming ) became common phrase and 12 months post accident it can still sometimes happen. Miming has improved . . .

Whispering or singing can sometimes be easier than speaking; speech therapist saying this is not uncommon for stroke/brain injured folk.

Then there is fatigue - anything goes. Stress - even I wonder at the rearrangements!

Often time is a healer, best of.