In the last chapter you did a thought experiment about sucking a lemon, and your body responded with increased salivation. In other words, stories are “real” in the sense that they have consequences. (If you just noticed your salivation increasing, that’s the power of a trigger!) However, whether something is real or not is not the point. What matters is that the story you are telling yourself has consequences. Because if the story does not give you what you want, you can change it. Simple. You already know this from your personal experience, because you are constantly updating the stories that make your life liveable. For example, you have picked up stories about using mobile phones, about responding to terrorist attacks, and so on. However, the PWS has a stuttering story which has been told so often that it has acquired the qualities of permanence. And what are those qualities? Well, we will examine them in a moment. Anticipatory anxiety
Your states affect everything you do. At any one time, your state governs how you perceive and interpret your environment, how you communicate, how you behave, and in addition, how well you remember what you have learned in the past. You know that when you are tired, or have been consuming mind-altering substances such as caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs of choice, your ability to recall your past alters. And when you are anxious about what may happen, that narrows your focus of what you pay attention to.
When the PWS considers an upcoming conversation in which they expect to block, they usually imagine a movie of themselves blocking during that conversation. Their body fulfils the movie’s expectations and this creates a state of fear which then gives rise to actual blocking (Figure 4.1). This anticipatory anxiety drives a lot of blocking and stuttering.
If you are a PWS check this out for yourself. Think about an upcoming conversation with someone with whom you usually block. Notice what you do. In all probability, you imagine a picture or a movie of seeing yourself blocking with that person. The mind-body system does not really distinguish between “real” and “imaginary” movies. You know that if you watch a scary Hollywood movie, your mind-body pumps out the adrenalin to get you ready to run! So when you run your own movie of an impending conversation, your state shifts in readiness for what you expect to happen. You block because it’s a story about blocking. Your body obliges; you feel muscles tensing up.
If you are not a PWS, create an imaginary movie of some future event that will create anxiety or even fear for you. For example, being found out and called into the boss’s office. (Did something like that ever happen at school?) Notice how your state changes as you create that imaginary movie. And now think of something really pleasant, such as completing an important task (sending off your tax return!) and relaxing … You can always choose to feel good, whenever you like!
In order to change a PWS’s stuttering behavior, to interrupt their blocking strategy, you have to get inside their inner world and determine which stories, thoughts or beliefs are responsible for the blocking. I will suggest some techniques for exposing those stories and the images and language patterns that support them. Then, by contrast, you need to discover the frames of meaning which allow them to speak fluently, and teach the PWS to change their blocking story to a fluency story. Remember that the PWS already knows how to speak fluently in some contexts. That means they already have those frames available. Movies in the mind
There are two key components that affect your state: the movie you imagine of what is going to happen; and the language you use to talk to yourself about it. First let’s look closely at the movies people make in the mind, because changing the qualities of those movies changes their meaning. For example, take that anxiety movie you were just imagining, and create a pleasantly relaxing mood simply by adjusting its appearance. Turn down the brightness, have muted colors, slow the action, play some soft music in the background … and notice your state now.
Think of how a Hollywood movie establishes a mood. Romantic comedies are usually sunny, lots of bright colors. Having a static camera in beautiful scenery, with soothing orchestral music, is calming; it reassures you that pleasant things will happen. On the other hand, a movie made in black and white, using a hand-held camera, and which involves rushing about in the dark with a thumping heartbeat soundtrack is an effective way of increasing uncertainty and tension. Horror movies are often full of shadows, half-seen events, extreme close-ups … just add some screeching violins …!
People who block and stutter are skilled in creating horror movies in their minds. Who needs the “Master of Horror” Stephen King when they can do their own movie making? Sometimes they scare the hell out of themselves about an upcoming conversation by making it look like a horror movie. They distort the image of the other person who then judges them because they block, or laughs at them, dismisses them as worthless, and so on.
It is easy to create a scary public-speaking movie. Just imagine the vast hall, the huge audience … staring at you … waiting for you … to start … stuttering. That can generate enough fear and anxiety to make anyone stutter! With intense fear, the general arousal syndrome kicks in, the adrenalin starts flowing, ready for fight or flight (Figure 4.1). This response keeps you alive when under real threat, but it does not serve you when you live in that state all the time. Since speaking is a large part of living, then living in constant fear and anxiety of speaking and keeping your general arousal syndrome constantly activated is not good.
