Come on, it’s not a big deal, Get over it

A girl (it is not known she has anemia) who runs the same distance as a non-anemic person, faints. She, being a girly girl, faints apparently just because of the excessive physical stress and not because of any underlying medical condition, because otherwise, she seems to be fine.

A person (it is not known, he has anhidrosis) who runs the same distance as a person without anhidrosis, faints.
He faints apparently just because of the excessive heat and not because of any underlying medical condition because otherwise, he seems to be fine.

A person (it is not known she has an emotional eating disorder) will eat more food, at the same dining table, than the person without the emotional eating disorder.

She eats more apparently just because of her excessive greed and not because of any underlying medical condition (like the one mentioned above or uncontrolled diabetes-related Polyphagia) because otherwise, she seems to be fine
Now consider stuttering/stammering:

People who stutter can speak completely fluently sometimes. Their speech production system is just more prone (pre-disposed)to break down than the usual population. It does not mean they will always stutter or their speech production system will always break down. It’s like a car that breaks down in the same rugged terrain unlike an SUV, but works fine on a leveled smooth road.

The car apparently breaks down just because of excessive bumps on the road, because otherwise, the car seems to be fine. Likewise, the person is perceived to stutter because of excessive mental stress, excessive under-confidence, or excessive shyness and not because of any predisposition. It is “all in the mind” because otherwise, he seems to be fine.

Here are some interesting observations:

1. Excess Mental stress (in the stuttering example) is not perceived as real as excess physical stress (in the anemia example). In addition to this, stuttering is not considered as an underlying condition like anemia, anhidrosis, polyphagia, etc.

2. Human speech is a wonder and the ability to make a diversity of sounds is, so far, unique to us in the animal kingdom. Our speech production system has evolved over millions of years and it is a multi-layered elaborate process that only feels spontaneous because we overlook and take for granted our refined speech structure in relation to the primitive speech structure of our nearest evolutionary siblings, chimpanzees.

3. In all the above cases, since the person seems to be otherwise fit and fine, the variation always boils down to or is always seen as a result of something excess – excess physical stress, excess heat, excess greed, or, in the case of stuttering, excess mental stress or excess childhood psychological trauma, making easy conclusions about the stutterer’s personality. I feel basing your beliefs, using this framework, is misleading because it completely overlooks and takes for granted the underlying condition in each of these cases. Conditions like anemia, anhidrosis, diabetes, stuttering occur as natural variations in the human population. These are, to varying degrees, genetic variations. All five fingers are not the same.

4. This line of thinking reduces stuttering to a purely psychological issue rather than a muscular-neurological coordination issue. The medical community does not recognize it as a “real” issue, let alone categorizing it as a handicap like loss of hearing. Both losses of hearing and stammering (loss of fluent speech) can severely limit a person’s ability to communicate with others in society. Then, why the Government and recruitment boards give full recognition to one and do not even acknowledge the other?

5. To put it simply, stuttering is nothing more than the speech production system being more prone to breakdown than usual.

People base their beliefs on what they see. Does not mean what they do not see is not real.

– Natesh Subhedar