Growing up with a stutter can sap your confidence and make you believe that you will never succeed in achieving your dreams both personally and professionally. This thought becomes intrinsic in the mind, going to the subconscious and ultimately becoming a reality, unconsciously manipulating everyday activities and life decisions. Many times, we don’t even realise we are making a certain choice based on our paradigms of what we can or cannot do because of stuttering.

Here, we would like to encourage you to embrace five pieces of advice that can hopefully help you handle stuttering in a different way to be your true self, achieve your dreams, and be comfortable with who you are.

Stuttering does not define who you are. You have different skills and a lot to offer the world. How you face frustration and disappointment can say more about you than the way you speak.

Respect your story and accept who you are. It may sound cliché but it makes a huge difference when dealing with disfluency.

When and if needed, tell people about your speaking difficulties without shame, especially in public speaking or stressful situations such as job interviews or class presentations. It will likely take a big weight from your shoulders.

Get help. Seeing a good speech therapist can help you deal with the daily challenges of disfluency and potentially improve the quality of your speech.

Don’t give up on your dreams because you stutter. Many people who stutter have gone on to have highly successful careers and relationships.