how I deceived you!!"; the mental strain is exceedingly great--so
great, in fact, that it seems as if the breaking point has almost
been reached. The nervous condition is alarming, the sufferer
noting in himself an inability to work, to play, to study or even
to sit still. An observer would note the stammerer or stutterer in
this condition fingering his coat lapels, putting his hands in his
pockets and removing them again, biting his finger nails,
constantly shifting eyes, head, arms and feet about. If at home,
the sufferer in this condition would probably be seen walking
about the house, unable to read, to play or listen to music or to
follow any of the accustomed activities of his life. If in
business or in the shop, he would be noticed making frequent trips
to the wash room, to the drinking fountain, to the foreman,
picking up and laying down his tools, looking out the window,
shifting from one foot to another, all of which symptoms indicate
an acute nervous condition, brought about by the return of his
trouble.

At this stage, the stammerer's confidence is hopelessly gone, so
it seems, and this feeling is accompanied by one of depression
which finds an outlet in the expression of the firm belief and
conviction on the part of the stutterer or stammerer that the
disorder can NEVER be cured, by any method, although just the day
before the same sufferer would have insisted that his stuttering
or stammering had CURED ITSELF and left of its own accord.

These conditions, both at the time of the so-called improvement
and at the time of the recurrence of the trouble, will appear in
greater or less degree in the case of every stutterer or stammerer
whose trouble is of the intermittent type.