Lying About Cause Of Stuttering
Posted on: June 7, 2012
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- 3 Comments
This is an interesting story that brings up the issues of shame regarding stuttering.
Stutterer and country singer Tim Poe auditioned for the reality TV show “America’s Got Talent” in Texas this past week. Before performing his song, his pre-interview showed him stuttering. So what, you might say.
Mr. Poe is a military veteran who claims he was injured in combat in Afghanistan and suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI.) He claims the stuttering is a result of the TBI.
Within 24 hours of his television audition, the media reported that Mr. Poe lied about being injured and that his stuttering was not the result of an injury, which would have made it neurogenic stuttering. It appears that Mr. Poe has indeed been a life-long stutterer and was so embarrassed that he felt he need to create an elaborate lie about his circumstances.
A lie that illustrates the shame of stuttering and a lie that illustrates disrespect to military veterans who have indeed been gravely injured.
I have heard of people who stutter who make up other reasons to explain stuttering, so they don’t have to admit or acknowledge the stuttering. People have coughed, cleared their throat, said they swallowed wrong, pretend to word switch.
Some people are so embarrassed and ashamed of their stuttering that they will do anything to hide it.
This example is extreme. What do you think?
3 Responses to "Lying About Cause Of Stuttering"
June 8, 2012 at 8:07 AM
Stuttering is exactly what i like. Thank you for that article. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks, Martina!
June 13, 2012 at 7:14 AM
Hi Pam.
It’s never easier to admit to “being different” or standing out from the crowd. Most of us (including me) feel or have felt in their lives that its much easier to keep ourselves hidden for fear of being “found out” or of being vulnerable maybe. People generally don’t like being different, we all thrive on one way or another on similarity and sameness and if something appears that we are not prepared for and have no knowledge of we attack this, mainly I think for self preservation.
I now love “being different” and having a stutter, I’ve been told I’m memorable and that’s a good thing in my eyes. For a long time I felt hugely embarrassed and ashamed of myself and my stutter but that’s no way to live for anyone and people can feel those feelings for many reasons. The more we (stutterers) make ourselves known and tell people that we are OK with ourselves and our stutters the more people will learn to accept us and that stuttering really isn’t such a big deal, in fact it makes us interesting in my opinion!
Thanks for the article – really interesting.
Suzanne Tubman.
Make Room For The Stuttering 
June 7, 2012 at 3:19 PM
Took me so many years to get over the shame and guilt. I’m now 46 and a Councillor for Dudley Council in the UK. I too know so many stutterers too ashamed of talking about the speech and what hidden, locked away in their minds. I’m the 1 in 100 not the 99 in 100. Hardest thing is to come out into the world and say what you really are. Humiliation is the strongest pain of all, something I’m afraid that has to be touched and played with. I wish there was an easier way. Once you tackle the fear of stuttering life becomes so much easier.
Kind regards Richard Body, PWS, Stourbridge, UK