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My story Found this thread and pretty happy to see a whole community of people that can understand and relate to the things we go through daily. I've had a stutter since I was little. I was always a quiet kid in general so no one really knew I had it till around 11 or 12. I got diagnosed with a general speech impediment and it was called a "nervous stutter" since it happened really only when I was excited or nervous. Anyway, I was put in speech therapy for two years in middle school and it didn't help much because I thought that none of the stuff that the teacher was telling me was going to help and I was just being stubborn. It got worse when I got to high school and playing sports. I couldn't get many words out so I went into my quiet mode for most of high school and had a small circle of friends. My family knew I had one but I never stammered around them due to me being comfortable with them. So I ended up in retail after graduating high school and had to learn how to engage conversations with random strangers on a daily basis. This was horrible for me at first but I essentially got my confidence up and did very well at my job. I still stammered when things got slammed and super busy or if a customer was yelling at me or I was arguing with them. I ended up joining the military after a year of college and thats when my speech became the worst from what I remember. The constant stress and lack of sleep really made my speech pattern terrible to the point where I would dread giving pass downs and briefs. When I took my oral board for my qualifications it was a nightmare. It got to the point where I was getting anxiety attacks just from driving from the barracks to the boat because I know that I had to talk to my command and supervisors. I stopped hanging out with my guys on my boat and became a shut in essentially. I was kicked off the boat due to general anxiety and depression. I got sent to land for 6 months to do therapy for my anxiety and my speech. The land job was my saving grace. I got my confidence back and got orders back to the boat with a whole new command. I became very confident in my job and very talkative. When it was time for me to choose a job for the branch of service I was in, I chose one that required me to talk literally on the radios for 12 hrs a day and answer calls from people that were either on fire or taking on water or dying. My supervisor who was also my good friend was shocked that I chose the job because of my speech impediment but he was very encouraging. My first few days at the new unit were rough because I was very nervous so my first few cases were rough but now I can thankfully say that when I hear myself talk on the radio you would never know I have one. Thanks for reading my story so far and look forward to reading more posts on this forum.