[pattle]

I've had a stammer since childhood, I'm a covert stammerer so I try my best to hide it and substitute words that I know I'm going to stammer / block on, most people probably don't realise that I have a stammer. I think it started when I was transitioning from primary school to middle school which was a very stressful and daunting time.

Throughout my life my speech has gone up and down. Mainly the quality of my speech has a positive correlation with how comfortable / confident I'm feeling.

I've had speech therapy in the past and learnt techniques that help a lot but it only really works if you're prepared to spend a large chunk of your day practising and preparing for speaking situations.

Any kind of stammer has a massive impact on your life because you can't express yourself and be the person you really are. I feel like the impact hasn't been as great in my professional life because in most programming jobs your performance is primarily based on the quality of your code. However I should probably be a bit further up the career ladder, I have the knowledge but not the communication skills.

I feel a great deal of shame / embarrassment / frustration as a stammer but having said that everyone has problems in their life and I'm thankful and grateful that I've got good health.

To anyone reading this and those that have already commented, please don't hesitate to contact me - my details are on my HN profile.