From thesundaytimes...

Stuttering: This is a speech fluency disorder that is characterised by repetitions at the sound, syllable or word level, such as "e-e-e-elephant". There may also be prolonged "stoppage" where no sound comes out and excessive use of word fillers such as "er".

"Singer Gareth Gates' stutter was so bad he had trouble introducing himself to the judges of British talent show Pop Idol in 2002. Named Favourite Male Artist at last Saturday's MTV Asia Awards here, he said in an interview: "If i didn't have a stammer, i'd probably be a lot more arrogant and full of myself." Stuttering is just one of several conditions that can render a person acutely self-conscious and hamper his social skills, say mental health doctors."

Check this out...

"Ms Khoo Sue Anne, a senior psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health(IMH), says: "Often, the anxiety of what others will think about a blush or a stammer is the real problem."

"Social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, is the term psychiatrists use to describe overwhelming anxiety and self-consciousness in everyday social situations. Associate Professor Calvin Fones has coined another term for the condition - Fear Of Negative Evaluation and Scrutiny." (yes i think its very true...)

"Associate Professor Leslie Lim, who heads the department of behavioural medicine at the SGH, says people with this disorder have a chronic fear of being judged as "weird, weak or incompetent" by others." (True again...)

I would say mine is a mild case... inconsistent sometimes also...

"Some even have to change their names to something that they can pronounce easily. She recalls a patient who always ended up ordering strawberry ice cream, which he disliked, because he always stuttered on the word "chocolate". Many of them are socially isolated and suffer from low self-esteem. They feel frustration, anxiety and even shame. At the end of the day, it boils down to how a person views his impediment or any embarassing trait. "If he is confident and good-humoured, he can still get his message across very effectively," says Ms Khoo of IMH."

"Some people say my brain works faster than my mouth, that's why i stammer." - Mr Gerry De Silva, Group Corporate affairs manager for Hong Leong Group (haha... =D)

"Reading widely, he says, also mitigated his tendency to stammer as "what was spoken was far more important then how it was spoken".

Oh well...