So what was the cause of all of this stress? I suppose if I am truthful the majority of my problems at the time came about due to the fact that I had a stutter. This speech impediment had developed when I was at the age of four. As you may well imagine it is something that destroyed my overall confidence levels. Therapy for stammering, at the time, was less than impressive which did not exactly help the situation.

My low self-esteem had a bad affect on many areas of my life, not just my speech. I would worry about what other people thought of me, I would stress about my height and my weight. I had a need or want, for some unknown reason, for people to like me. I have to say that this now seems so bizarre however at the time I was being plagued by an army of demons that had taken over my brain. It even affected my career which is within the cheap mobile calls and cheap holidays industries.

As I entered into my twenties I decided that enough was enough. I could no longer live in this way – there surely had to be more to life than this.

There was only one person who was going to get me out of the mess that I was in and that person was me.

I started to work very hard at learning how to increase self-esteem for example. I also studied the ways in which the best fluent talkers were speaking in comparison to me in an attempt to eradicate the speech impediment.

Progress was far from quick however after around a year of battling against my demons I did manage to overcome the stutter and I did manage to discover ways to stop me stressing – it is all about attitude and the way we approach life – think positive and believe in yourself!

From reading life coaching and positive thinking books, I realised I had to become a far stronger person, more care-free and to have more respect for myself. The new me was a person that was only going to go to places that I wanted to – no more accepting second best for me. I was well aware that it would be tough to ensure that I kept up this new found attitude but I knew I had to give it my best shot.

I was soon to be tested, it was at one of my friends(Ian)houses. He is a very successful business man; he sells front doors for a living and can be quite an assertive person, he also works with a group of cost reduction experts. He and some of the other “boys” had organised an evening out for the following weekend. There were numerous reasons why I did not want to go out on that particular night. Ian soon asked if I was interested in going out to which I answered in the negative.

That answer was not enough for him and he proceeded to question my reasons for not wanting to go. I felt all of the eyes of the people present descend on me and I felt quite awkward. Normally in this situation I would give some excuse but instead I asked him why I needed to give a reason and why my answer of no was not enough for him. He seemed quite shocked at my strong response and moved on to question and nag someone else.

I am now a much more assertive person myself and I am pleased to report that I have now managed to overcome the stutter thanks mainly due to the expert therapy offered at the How To Stop Stammering Center in Birmingham.

So what was the cause of all of this stress? Most of the problems were probably due to the fact that I had a stammer/stutter. This speech impediment had developed when I was at the age of four. As you may well imagine it is something that destroyed my overall confidence levels. Therapy for stuttering, at the time, was less than impressive which did not exactly help the situation.

Having a lack of confidence affected nearly all areas of my life; not just my speech. I would worry about what other people thought of me, I would stress about my height and my weight. I was so desperate, for whatever reason, for people to like me. Looking back it all just sounds so crazy but it was like I was being controlled by some demonic force.

As I entered into my twenties I decided that enough was enough. I could no longer live in this way – there surely had to be more to life than this.

I was soon to realise that I was the only person who was going to sort my life out.

I started to work very hard at learning how to increase self-esteem for example. I watched the way in which great fluent talkers spoke and tried to compare it with the way that I spoke. I hoped this would result in me finding the solution to my stuttering problem.

Progress was far from quick however after around a year of battling against my demons I did manage to overcome the stutter and I did manage to discover ways to stop me stressing – it is all about attitude and the way we approach life – think positive and believe in yourself!