Why do some "handicaps," like chronic facial tics or stuttering, disappear when the person with the handicap is doing something they're passionate about, like singing, or talking intently about something very important to them?

Have you seen Joe Cocker?

I don’t have a very good answer to your direct question but I can give you somethings I do know. There are always those people in the world that are good at everything, you probably know people like that. Think of a valedictorian or MENSA members that scores the 200 on an I.Q. test. The thing is that they are good at everything but they aren’t the best at anything. Some people, handicapped or not, focus their skills on one certain thing that they love rather than spread their focus on a multiple array of things. An example that comes to mind is having money to spend on a car, you could spend it all on the engine or you could enhance the overall ability of the car by spending some money on shocks and tired and breaks ect.

It isn’t my place to claim this because I am not handicapped in that way and I hope nobody takes offense but maybe those people can’t focus on multiple things like others can. The one thing that they really focus on causes them to lose themselves in their passion.

LOL @filmfann He was wasted! Wasn’t he? It was Woodstock!

@2CDenzy “The one thing that they really focus on causes them to lose themselves in their passion.” Good answer. Do you think there are things that people with “no” handicap lose when they lose themselves in their passion? I’m trying to think….

Track of time? When I do what I love I want time to stop so I can do it forever. What I love to do is write, which isn’t a very social activity so I guess I lose my sociability too. That’s just me though. Maybe it depends on the person and their passion.

I have a hard time with speech sometimes. But when I sing I’m clear and enunciating. Most of all I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. I’m taken away by the music and the focus it takes to sing that music. I would believe that passionate subjects would do the same thing. You have to give it focus and energy.

Not to imply that an accent is a handicap, but a lot of singers with accents don’t sing with an accent. For example, Elton John, Phil Collins, all of the Beatles, Ozzy Osbourne, and a million others sound as though they’re red-white-and-blue-blooded. I wonder if that phenomenon is tied to the stutter/tic phenomenon?

@2CDenzy Writing (for me) was the first thing that came to my mind too…am I different when I write to the point that everything that “defines” me changes….?

@dubsrayboo but…how would one lose a involuntary physical action doing something they’re passionate about?

@Seelix Hmmm….good answer! ... If they became famous singing in the UK, would they sound different? Is it because they became famous singing in America?

I have read a little bit about the stuttering/singing phenomenon. What I have read suggests that although singing is similar to talking (in that it involves language) a different part of the brain is being used for singing than is for talking.

This is a slightly different phenomenon, but kind of works in the same way. Say you are driving down the street listening to the radio, but you are looking for an address. When you get closer to the address and really start looking at the numbers on the houses, you are likely to turn down the sound of the radio, even though you are looking for something visual and not trying to hear something. It’s just that listening to the radio gets in the way of your brain trying to see something. It’s all related to how your brain processes information and which parts of the brain are used for various processing of information.

@Kardamom Nice…but you drop the least important things first….like, if you’re driving down the street looking for an address you don’t forget to brake when you need too. Usually…..I guess it could depend on how distracted you are.

@Dutchess_III I don’t think I understand what you’re asking.