Can’t ask for a bus ticket and scared to pick up the phone: Meet the young Brits living with crippling stammers
A new documentary explores the daily struggles of three young people living with extreme stammers and the problems they face on a daily basis.
STANDING at the bus stop, Zain Ghani flinches nervously as he rehearses how he's going to ask for his ticket.
The 23-year-old from Halifax is one of half a million people in the UK with a stammer - and it has a catastrophic effect on his daily life.
“It’s like choking on your own words. I have something to say, but sometimes my stammer leaves me too petrified to speak,” says Zain, who has struggled with his stammer his whole life.
More than 700 million people have a stammer across the globe and around five per cent of children under the age of five go through a phase of stammering.
But while most grow out of it, some never do.
A new Channel 5 documentary that airs tonight meets some of the young Brits who have to fight to be heard everyday.
'I couldn't say my own name'
A stammer is classed as a neurological disorder and happens when different areas of the brain controlling speech fail to co-ordinate with each other, causing repetitions and stops.
“Waiting for the bus, I have to rehearse what ticket I’m going to ask for in my head," Zain says. "I feel inferior to everyone able to just walk on and ask for what they need."
And he admits that he called himself ‘Jane’ when he was a toddler as he couldn’t pronounce his own name - and when things got really bad and he struggled with his condition, he'd pass his mum letters reading “I don’t want to talk for a few days”.
Zain says matters are made worse when those meaning well try to intervene and tell him to ‘slow down’.
“People try and help you by saying ‘breathe slowly and take your time’. It’s patronising.
"People don’t understand how to behave with someone they’re meeting for the first time who has a stammer,” he says.
Zain adds that he has been misunderstood since school, when his classmates wouldn’t give him a chance to join in.
“During high school, I was really reserved and I would just sit out and listen to other people speak instead,” he admits.
“Whenever I did have a point, I would be petrified just to say it. I wish people were more patient."
'I was petrified of going to school - and my jaw ached from trying to talk'
Jordan, 21, developed his stammer at the age of eight or nine after a head injury and it has progressively got worse.
He’s since endured years of bullying and has been unable to find a job,
“They X-rayed me at the hospital and there was nothing wrong with my head, but I just started to stammer,” he explains.
“At first it was quite mild, but it started to get worse and worse as I got older.
"It reached the point where sometimes I was left physically exhausted from trying to move my jaw to get the words out.”
For Jordan, his sudden stammer saw him transform from a confident young school boy to a recluse who was bullied by his peers and left petrified of going to school.
He adds: “I became very withdrawn and isolated. It was hard for me to come to terms with.
“They used to do impressions of me. Some days I was so petrified to go to school that I used to tell my mum I had missed the bus.”
He also experienced people laughing in his face - and describes his stammer as ‘the elephant in the room’ now he's an adult.
His older sister Gemma remembers: “I’ve seen him come home crying from school, because they would take the mickey out of him and say he was disabled.”
Jordan has struggled to find a job due to his confidence, and is nervous every time he is asked to interview which, in turn, makes his stammer worse.
Determined to succeed, he still visits the job centre weekly and says his speech won’t hold him back.
“Just because I stammer, it doesn’t mean I can’t follow my dreams in life,” he says.
“It’s difficult for young people to find work without a stammer, but hopefully with the right help I can find a job.
“I’d like to save some money and maybe get my own place – have a normal adult life."
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Despite being held back by their stammers and cruelly taunted by others, Jordan and Zain are all still following their dreams and facing their fears and challenges head on.
Jordan is training to be a kitchen porter and Zain has just spoken publicly in front of an assembly of 200 children.
Their voices are finally being heard.
My Extreme Stammer and Me airs tonight on 5STAR at 9pm