>*I do believe that stuttering to an extent is something that happens Independent of emotional states, as I do stutter alone sometimes when I feel pretty neutral emotions.* When people who stutter (PWS) talk by themselves, it turns out that around 65% of them speak without any stuttering, about 25% stutter significantly less, and 10% continue stuttering. I believe you might fall into the second category, but I believe that PWS can change this.. for example, I used to stutter quite a bit when I spoke alone during my childhood. However, through self-change I was able to stutter significantly less when talking alone, during my university years. If you're interested, [this](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094730X21000577) research study discusses how PWS, when alone but not fully convinced they are truly alone, tend to continue stuttering. The research suggests that PWS need to truly believe they are alone to speak fluently \[self-imposed demand\]. In other words, PWS require imposing a demand upon themselves to improve fluency, otherwise perceived conflict is established. Obviously, we don't ONLY improve fluency when alone as there are dozens, if not hundreds of other environmental factors that affect our fluency.. so in one viewpoint, I think that PWS simply have developed dozens or hundreds of self-imposed demands for overt execution. Drawing from your comment, other limiting conditional demands that we impose upon ourselves could be * I make it harder on myself to execute speech motor plans, if I perceive that: * (1) parents and/or society react negatively * (2) I rely on a cultural expectation of how much time is allowed to speak a particular word or sentence * (3) I give up on normal (or subconscious) overt execution and rely upon secondary behaviors (tension, avoidance etc) for overt execution Conclusion: This aligns more with what you mentioned about emotional states. It seems that emotions might not have a significant impact on fluency if you (or me) are speaking alone, as you pointed out. So, I think, instead of thinking in terms of emotional levels, it may be more effective to consider the demands we impose upon ourselves for overt execution. Perhaps, instead of reinforcing a demand that we must require a belief to convince ourselves of something to improve fluency \[**conditional** demand that limits speech performance\], it might be more effective to learn to rely upon and develop an **unconditional** demand to speak fluently in any situation, at any time without needing/requiring convincing ourselves of anything, without needing confidence, without needing to reduce triggers and just execute speech motor plans immediately without waiting or estimating some complex and unnecessary speech programming for overt execution. This is just my own take on it.