Corona lockdown: A stammering persons boon or bane? Some factors that change during this lockdown and Covid-19 may reduce stammering while some others may aggravate stammering. So this makes it the perfect time to destress and load up on confidence.
The events from Wuhan that shook China have shaken the world with the wrath of CORONA or COVID-19. In light of the developments pertaining to containing the community spread of this virus, the Indian government’s announcement of a lockdown has met with strong reactions – both positive and negative. While some people have come out in strong support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Janata Curfew”, some people are also rebelling this disruption of work and life.
Amidst this pandemonium, life has changed for all. Let us explore how the life of a stammering person gets affected in this scenario. Stammering or stuttering or childhood onset fluency disorder can be understood as disruption in the usual verbal fluency of a person, typically observed as involuntary audible or silent repetitions or prolongations. Although the etiology and the origin of this condition is widely researched from various frameworks, nothing conclusive has been established apart from the fact that it is multifactorial and highly dynamic/variable.
Survival of the fittest:
In this highly volatile scenario, thoughts and emotions of all kinds get scrambled. The first reaction of any person to the present lockdown situation is fear. Social media has proved very powerful to ensure that the panic spreads like wildfire in every household. To add to that, news reports have been singing their chorus 24X7 about the seriousness of the situation. The fear of the unknown, surprise of the sudden announcement, panic of not knowing what to do, anger and frustration at the situation, helplessness due to the situation, hopelessness due to the situation’s uncertainty, sadness due to the feeling of loss of control, all these emotions increase the stammering response. However, this could be a brief period of increased stammering severity until the acceptance sets in.
Evolutionarily, whenever a threat to survival arises, the primal instinct to live kicks in due to this fear response in the mind and body. Where a fight or flight response is warranted in response to a stressor, this gives us the physical strength and the mental acuity to either face the threat or initiate an escape route. A person with stammering is more likely to experience this fear more strongly. Since escaping from the situation itself is not a viable option and neither is fighting against the situation, the physiological and psychological changes resulting from fear response may intensify milder or “under the radar” levels of stammering into more detectable moderate or even severe forms of stammering with observable secondary characteristics like hand jerks, head shaking, foot tapping and other facial distortions.
In response to this lockdown, behaviours that are of “high survival value” are likely to be triggered more strongly. To a person with stammering there is another added incentive to following the lockdown more strongly. A person with stammering faces more problems in speech situations in certain social settings. With the social distancing and lockdown in place, they have the perfect excuse to avoid all social contact with people and also avoid the entire setting itself. So stammering can be expected to come down as well as the anticipation of stammering and feelings of anxiety, nervousness, frustration, depression associated with stammering. They can slowly get away from the constant humiliation and embarrassment of everyday’s interactions with known people and more so with strangers, which elicit more severe stammering.
Social networking in times of social distancing:
A person’s biggest source of support is their social network, composed of their friends and family. A lockdown with a supportive family or a supportive group of friends can be a pleasant time that many of us can enjoy like a holiday or picnic. It de-stresses everyone and encourages stronger bonds. This pressure-free form of communication helps a person with stammering to slowly gain back their fluency and be comfortable by being themselves. This helps them to reconstruct their confidence and self esteem positively. This time helps bring people closer by sorting out their differences and mend their social relationships.
In contrast to this ideal lockdown scenario, being stuck with a non-supportive set of family members or friends can make lockdown a quarantine in hell. If one’s relationship with the lockdown inmates is strained, then the lockdown can seem to be overwhelming. Furthermore, a casual relationship with near and dear ones can also face serious complications as issues become more apparent and gain prominence in the face of this lockdown. An environment of cold wars, quarrels, fights and tiffs can make any place intense and push up the stammering level because of the high anger and excitement levels.
The changing communication patterns:
Generally, in most cases, stammering occurs more in newer and stranger situations but in some cases it occurs more within known circuits like immediate family or extended family. This difference is actually based on one’s early personal experiences with these people in those settings. Having a strained relationship with a family member(s), having a strict parent (mom or dad), punishing parenting, witnessing or undergoing something traumatic at a very early age, seeing family fights, etc. could make home a difficult place to feel comfortable in. This makes stammering more prominent in that setting whereas outside home and that environment, the person feels comfortable with the company of strangers and hence speaks fine.
Nowadays a person has to compulsorily engage in a social interaction with shopkeepers for buying essentials from time to time. Earlier options of home delivery of every item is now restricted or stopped due to the lockdown. This makes going to the shop a very essential activity but also the hoarding frenzy of people makes it a panicky ordeal indeed. To a person with stammering, speaking to strangers is an unsettling matter and more so for shopping. Shops where you could have finished your shopping without a word to exchange have restricted access and a person has to tell it out aloud what items are required. When they have to read out a long list to the shopkeeper, it puts a sudden intense pressure on them. An escape tactic used to be handing over the shopping list itself to the person, but now the fear of transmission of the virus has made everything as contactless as possible, thus snatching away the only rope in sight.
There is also an increased emphasis on going online in this tech-savvy age of lockdown. Entertainment does not require a second person. Social connections are no more reliant on speaking with each other. Social media posts have gotten more and personal while making the interaction as impersonal as possible. Work gets done more effectively online enabling work from home for most sectors. Meetings and classes now happen through online video-conferencing and screen-sharing apps. This is a tricky situation. The impersonal nature of online meetings and classes is an advantageous situation for some people with stammering by reducing their pressures and performance anxiety. On the hand, the impersonal nature of online call conferencing brings in an anxiety amongst people suffering from stammering of unsure reactions of the person on the other side. That is the reason some people stammer more over the phone than in face-to-face conversations. With most transactions happening over phone as well as on video-calls, some people may be at a disadvantage while others may reap benefits of showing their improved productivity.
Financial peace of mind:
With the turbulent financial economy Worldwide, a lockdown for weeks or may be even more can be a difficult and stressful time for any family. Having to buy essential commodities and stock up for longer periods requires a huge investment of funds and that too, in the middle of a month. For families with limited fund situations, the financial struggle can cause worries and tension about the uncertain future. If a person is unemployed, the mental pressures of how to support the family becomes more grave. For business families who earn through daily transactions with customers or are suppliers/distributors, large payments get delayed, postponed or cancelled. Additionally, economic breakdowns and financial instability render the job market scenario very bleak, which means jobs can be lost at any time and new job openings are going to be very minimal. This implies that once the lockdown ends, the fight for new jobs is going to get fierce as the supply is more than the demand. Grave financial situations of the family can lower one’s confidence and increase mental stress, pumping up the stammering response acutely.
To sum it up
Life is changing and so are we. To a person with stammering, everything is changing that is linked with stammering. The way they perceive speaking in each situation may change drastically following the social distancing during lockdown. The way they connect with people will have changed as does the way they hold official meetings or work in the shift from face-to-face or offline to telephonic or online. Some factors that change during this lockdown and Covid-19 may reduce stammering while some others may aggravate stammering. So this makes it the perfect time to destress, load up on confidence and ponder on how to make daily speaking instances an enjoyable one.
Upasana Bagchi.
Counselling Psychologist , Stammering Cure Centre
48, 1st Floor, 23rd Main,JP Nagar
2nd Phase, Bangalore -560078.
Mob:9986020833 Email: upasana.bagchi@res.christuniversity.in
