Thank you for the feedback. Now I have a much clearer understanding! I absolutely agree with your statement that anxiety can also be affected by underlying genes/neurology/traits. For example, according to the research study: "T*emperament is linked to avoidance-behaviors to stuttering anticipation*" (2021): * while shyness is rooted in discomfort in social situations, **behavioral inhibition** is a temperamental disposition rooted in discomfort with novelty across both social and nonsocial situations * CWS tend to be shyer than children who do not stutter (Fowlie & Cooper) * temperament is **reactivity** and **self-regulation** in emotional, attentional, and motor domains. Temperament is influenced by experience. **Reactivity** refers to how easily one’s emotions, attention, and motor activity are aroused, including proclivities toward, away from, or against unfamiliar or challenging stimuli (Rothbart, 2011). **Self-regulation** modulates reactivity; it reflects how one initiates, maintains, or moderates the occurrence, intensity, and duration of their arousal (Rothbart & Bates, 1998) * orienting sensitivity, also known as “cognitive sensitivity,” refers to automatic attention to both internal events and external sensory events. It may be the case that AWS who are particularly attentive to internal events (e.g., knowing that overt stuttering is about to occur) or external events (e.g., perceived negative reactions or the potential for negative reactions), are more likely to avoid because they are quicker or better able to implement an alternative response (in this case, avoidance) than AWS who are not as sensitive in this regard * people with a high orienting sensitivity perceive more anticipation that they are either (a) about to stutter or (b) receive even subtle listener reactions to their speech and in turn might be more inclined to avoid the upcoming moment of stuttering * the ability to detect upcoming stuttering may be closely related to interoception, or the ability to perceive bodily changes (e.g., cardiovascular and other physiological changes), which likely vary across individuals (Jones, G., 1994) * defensive mechanism: anxious individuals (1) perceive more threatening cues in their environment (vigilance) and then quickly shifting their attention away from that stimulus (avoidance) (Eysenck, 1992; Mogg & Bradley, 1998). And (2) tend to prioritize attentional processing of negative stimuli (Beita-Zuk, 2013; Hennessey et al., 2014; Lowe et al., 2012, 2016)