You bring up great, thoughtful points and questions. I'll try to answer all of your questions, but I'd be more than happy to chat about this further if you want to drop me a line. >When you were a kid, in the first week you started stuttering, you didn't have fears like: "Oh no I will stutter on the letter ABCDEFG" (this is called stressor, it's fear that triggers expectation of a stutter). I'm trying to say, as a kid you didn't (yet) learn to fear situations, sounds, etc. I even go so far to say that as a kid you didn't have perceived stresses, you didn't feel any pressure regarding fluent speaking or stuttering. I'm talking about the first day or first week that you stuttered as a kid. You didn't have stresses then because you didn't build them. This is my opinion. Do you agree? I may quibble with some of your semantic choices, but yeah I agree. If you started stuttering very young, the self awareness is not there and you have not associated stuttering moments with negative feelings yet. And as soon as that starts happening it's hard to reverse that. > 1. First interpretation, you can say it doesn't matter that I stutter or speak fluently. If I occasionaly stutter then it's fine, but I don't think about it further. I don't care what other people think, if I stutter. *-> this is not my view. Disadvantage: not productive towards fluency 2. Second interpretation, you can say it doesn't matter what other people think about my fluency. I don't care about their opinion, I'm focusing on my opinion that I know I can speak fluently, and I want to feel fluent. *-> this is my view. Advantage: constructive towards fluency What is your interpretation of it? I assume by your opinion "It's within me" that you prefer the first interpretation. I think it's the combination of the 2. I am inline with statement 1, but not your disadvantage. I'll try to explain. I wholeheartedly agree with "it doesn't matter what other people think about my fluency". I've formed a personal opinion that its noones business to care how fluent I am in a particular moment (and I cringe inside when people are trying to be nice and say oh I haven't heard you stutter as much). I don't put any credence in stuttering or fluency. Stuttering, IMO, doesnt have to be a bad thing, as much as fluency doesnt have to be a good thing. I'm done trying to fix in society's box. I know what I bring to the table. Thinking of fluency caused me much pain and anxiety and I feel so much more calm and free since I stopped chasing it. Ironically more fluency has been a byproduct, but I truly don't care about it. For me (i want to stress "for me" because YMMV) even enjoying fluent moments has not been healthy for me. It's like trying to chase that high. > In my opinion if you say "It's within me" then it's a way of 'accepting stuttering' and by doing so you unconsciously create many fears, doubts, and other thoughts to maintain the problem. You accept stuttering with the goal of desentitizing fear but unknowingly you add fear as well. I have spent years trying to figure out what stuttering acceptance means to me. My definition (for now!) Of acceptance is: to choose to allow the existence of stuttering without interference. My path of acceptance has eliminated the connection of stuttering and negative emotions. You're going under the principle by always having stuttering within you, it will always add fear unknowingly. I contend if you address that you don't have to be fearful of stuttering, and don't allow your mind to produce more fear in stuttering moments, I don't think I am unconsciously creating more negative feelings for myself. It's an interesting discussion for sure. > For example, if my relative is in the hospital. Then I can accept the believe that she will not heal. Result: I expect that she will not heal. This creates 'stress/pressure' thoughts. Do you agree? So if I accept the believe that "stuttering is within me, it's my way of speaking'. Result: then I unconsciously expect that I will stutter. This creates unconscious stress/pressure thoughts. Agreed? I would say, if my relative does not heal, it's OK, that happens in life and I can get through this if they do not heal. I'm ok with stuttering moments, but I'm not predicting that it's going to happen. The fear predicts that the stuttering is going to happen, not with the fact that I acknowledge stuttering is a possibility, but that possibility is ok.