I know this is an old post but I still want to share my story as I can relate completely to the exhaustion that comes with having a stutter; I think the original reason I have a stutter is because my head was pushed against my mothers pelvic bone too much in the womb , as my head is also flat at the back. But boy has it been hard work, people never really used to say that my stutter was that bad but I think it was because they were used to it. In primary school I had quite a lot of friends in all fairness, nobody really ever picked on me because of it because I used to laugh it off myself, in fact I used it to my advantage to make people laugh because everyone knew that I had a stutter, but in high school it started getting tiring , as I was told that I would probably grow out of it, instead it actually started to get worse. I didn’t want to keep being a clown and making people laugh because of it, because really they’re just laughing at me, not because of anything funny or witty I’ve said; anytime I would think of a good comeback to say to someone or something to add on to a joke, my stutter would just stop me, I’d know straight away that I wouldn’t be able to get that line out, and I’d just think fuck this, by the time you’d get the sentence out it would take away the humour by like 90% , still get the odd laugh but you’d just think it was because of how you said it. By 16 I had a solid set of mates at the end of high school who are still my brothers to this day, we’d all rip the shit out of each other everyday and it felt like my speech was getting better because of it! Weirdly enough I stutter a LOT less with girls, you’d think having nerves or something would accelerate it but it actually done the opposite, to a certain extent & even if I did stutter, they’d just say it was cute.. not exactly sexy but I could still pull, it just takes more effort to. At 17/18 I went through a 18 month phase where me and my mates were taking a lot of drugs - ecstasy , methadrone , cocaine etc, THIS is where it hit peak. I remember being so frustrated every single day of my life because I simply couldn’t get a sentence out. I had no career, no money, no ambition or drive to do anything apart from get intoxicated and take loads of drugs. I used to hope every day that it would eventually get better, I’d look at cures and ways to try fixing it, I tried all that speech therapy stuff and in my sessions my stutter would be fine, it’s strange, but when you know you can’t get a sentence out nothing you can do can help it. Anyway over to 21, I’m passed this druggie hole that I was in, started going the gym at 19, a new career at 20, was still going out and getting pissed every weekend but my speech had definitely made a big improvement! I started to realise that the more I focused on myself the better it become, I started eating healthier, prioritising cardio and strength training in the gym, taking a B1 supplement (Thymine) which I actually felt a difference from, also I looked into nofap to see if it could make any difference - and I think it does, when I’m on a streak , communication doesn’t seem exhausting at all, even if I do stutter I don’t even care and just brush it off. I realised then that I can’t let myself slip, I’ve got to keep on top of everything and keep levelling up, now I’m 27 and the passed year of my life my stutter has basically been none existent. People forget I even have one, don’t get me wrong I still have days where it’s bad! But I’m forever grateful that I can actually have conversations now and not have to even care about getting my sentences out or not. Hope you can take this information and put it to good use! I think it all boils down to a lack of confidence and some type of disconnection in your brain that controls your speech