What ISAD Means to Me

Blog by James Hayden
Oct. 15, 2018

Since 1998, October 22^nd has been known as International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD). I didn’t know ISAD existed until late 2016, early 2017 and I celebrated my first ISAD last year. Celebrate. It’s a unique word choice, isn’t it? For most of my life, celebrate was the last word I would associate with stuttering and definitely the last thing I wanted to do in terms of my stutter. When I thought of stuttering, words such as: different, hide, avoid, self-doubt, self-conscious, blocking, frustration, and why, came to mind. When I listed the things I wanted to do in terms of stuttering they included: avoid the topic altogether and not talk about it.

When I went back to speech therapy five years ago, my list of things I wanted to do changed. Avoidance was replaced with: talking on the phone without a script, becoming a more confident public speaker, and ordering through a drive-thru, amongst others. Words such as: hide, self-doubt, and different were replaced with acceptance, good, and me. Yet, celebrate was still not on that list. I could not, nor would not celebrate the small victories that I had with stuttering each day.

Up until two and a half years ago, celebrate continued to not be on my word association list. That changed in May of 2016 when the word “celebrate” slowly crept into my stuttering vocabulary. I celebrated my first National Stuttering Awareness Week (NSAW) and posted a stuttering related article to my social media accounts during NSAW 2016 with the caption, “Happy National Stuttering Awareness Week!” As a result of NSAW 2016, I started to allow myself to celebrate the small victories of stuttering. Celebrate took on a bigger meaning in my stuttering vocabulary in spring 2017 when I began blogging about my journey with stuttering. For the first time, I was not hiding my stutter from the world. Rather, I was celebrating one of my differences and letting other people who stutter (PWS) know that they are not alone. From personal experience, meeting other PWS is cause enough for a celebration.

Celebrate has taken on a bigger meaning for me in the past year and half. I now lead a stuttering support group. I talk about my stutter openly. I write about my experiences with stuttering on a regular basis and on numerous platforms. I have talked to numerous groups about stuttering and my journey with stuttering. I do these things because I want to celebrate a part of who I am. A celebration that I thought would never happen.

When I look at the acronym for International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) I see the phrase “I sad” and instantly think of the Alanis Morissette song, "Ironic.” It's ironic because one of the things that brought me such great amounts of self-doubt, embarrassment, and at times sadness a few years ago, now has brought me much joy, a great community, a passion, and another thing in life to celebrate.

I(am)SAD no longer but I am accepting and celebrating. So happy, yes happy, International Stuttering Awareness Day!

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Bob Love

Bob Love has dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.