How my stutter challenges me yet helps shape who I am

It’s not lost on me that part of my job is speaking publicly now.

When Joseph Ferguson, a social media producer at The Atlanta Journal-constitution, interviewed Carl Herder, Atlanta director of the American Institute for Stuttering, for this week’s accessatlanta podcast, it was a topic that was personal to him. Here, Ferguson talks about his own experience living with a stutter:

When I think about my stutter, it’s as much a part of me as my left arm. What makes it different, however, is learning how to live with it. I’ve had a stutter my whole life, but around the time I hit the first grade, it became legitimate. And by that I mean it became enough of an issue for my school to enroll me in a speech class.

Looking back on it, I am so grateful I went to a school that was able to recognize my stutter and get me into speech therapy. This was around the same time the bullying really started. I won’t bore you with the details, but I heard that “T-t-t-today Junior” joke more than a few times. As much as I hated my stutter at the time, I can see how it was and still is so integral to my formation as a person.

First and foremost, I learned that you have to work hard to get the things you want. It gave me grit. I wanted the skills to communicate my ideas as well as fluent people do. Because of that determination, I went to speech therapy three times a week for

nesium daily. Anything at or below that level is unlikely to cause any adverse health effects. But at higher doses, magnesium can cause gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, said Dr. Colleen Lance, the medical director for the Sleep Disorders Center at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital in Ohio. Lance said that while the evidence that magnesium can help with insomnia is weak, she does not necessarily discourage people from trying it.

“I tell patients you can give it a try and see if it helps,” she said. “It may not help, but it’s probably not going to hurt.”

One instance where she does recommend magnesium is for patients who have restless legs syndrome, a nervous system disorder that causes people to have irresistible urges to move their limbs, usually at night, which can be highly disruptive to sleep. Lance said that magnesium could, in theory, make a difference because it helps nerves properly relay electrical signals, although evidence of its benefits for restless legs is still limited and mixed, and it may not work for everyone.

At least one small study from 1998 found that people who had the disorder had fewer sleep disruptions after taking magnesium. However, a more recent systematic review of studies concluded that it was “not clear” whether magnesium could alleviate restless legs syndrome.

More research is needed, but Lance said that she tells patients with RLS that it may be worth trying to see if it makes any difference. “We tell patients that they can try some magnesium in the evening hours to see if that calms things down,” Lance added.

Chronic insomnia, however, is not usually something that can be fixed with a pill. When Lance meets patients who complain of insomnia, she typically does an evaluation to figure out the root causes of their sleepless nights. Often, she finds that a patient might be having trouble falling or staying asleep because of an undiagnosed sleep disorder, like sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome. Many women have sleep problems related to menopause. Some people cannot sleep soundly because their environment is too noisy — they could have a spouse who snores, for example, or a dog who barks through the night. Others may be struggling to sleep because of anxiety related to the pandemic, their work, their finances or some other stressful situation in their lives.

One of the most effective treatments for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, which helps people address the underlying behaviors that are disrupting their sleep. Therapies like continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, can help people with sleep apnea. Medications, including supplements like melatonin, may also be helpful in some cases, but a pill alone is not going to cure insomnia, Lance said.

“We see a lot of people who have some underlying issue and yet they’re looking for a pill to sleep through the problem,” she said. “Whereas what we try to do instead is find and address the underlying problem.”

Joseph Ferguson