Cases of unreasoning despondency, which result in the stammerer’s desire to take his own life, are so numerous as hardly to require comment.  Very frequently you see in some of the large metropolitan papers an account of a suicide resulting from a nervous and mental condition brought on by stuttering and stammering.  This condition seems to be very marked in the cases of stammerers between the ages of twelve and twenty, records showing that most of the suicides of stammerers are persons between those ages.

The intense mental strain, the extreme nervous condition, the continual worry and fear cannot fail, sooner or later, to have its effect upon the mind.  This is clear to any stammerer, who is familiar with the mental condition brought about by the first few hours of one of his periods of recurrence.  Another case where the mental strain is extremely great is that of the synonym stammerer —­the mentally alert individual who, in order to prevent the outward appearance of stammering, is continually searching for synonyms or less difficult words to take the place of those which he cannot speak.  This continual searching for synonyms results in a nervous tension that is sure to tell on the mental faculties sooner or later, and I have found, in examining many thousands of cases, that the synonym stammerer is usually in a more highly nervous state than any other type.

Mental strain eventually tells:  The effect of stuttering or stammering on the sufferer’s concentration is very marked.  The sufferer notes an inability to concentrate his mind on any subject for any length of time, finds it impossible to pursue an education with any degree of success or to follow any business which requires close attention and careful work.

The power-of-will is also affected and the stammerer notes an inability to put through the things which he starts and which require the exercise of will power to bring to a successful conclusion.

A diagnosis of insanity is sometimes made in the case of a stammerer in the advanced stages of his malady, while in other instances the mental aberration takes the form of a hallucination of some sort, as in the case of the boy who was of the belief that he was continually being followed.

But regardless of what form is taken by the mental disorder resulting from stammering, such cases are almost invariably found to have long since passed into the incurable stage, although positive statements as to the individual’s condition should not be made, as a rule, without a thorough diagnosis having first been made.

CHAPTER VIII

THE EFFECTS ON THE BODY

The effect of stammering or stuttering upon the physical structure is problematical.  In some cases examined, a noticeable lack of vitality has been found, together with an almost total loss of active appetite, a marked inclination toward insomnia and a generally debilitated condition resulting from the nervous strain and continued fear brought on by the speech disorder.