" Anyway, non-stutterers simply immediately move the speech muscles without relying on anything.. likely because they don't see the need to do so .." Interestingly, I see non-stutterers also tend to repeat in a more pronounced way at a different pace to show they are fixing their mumble or what ever threw them off just a moment ago. So the question I'd have is, are they fixing their mindset from any confusion and anxiety, or did they not have to do that to begin with and was it more of a cultural acknowledgement to not feel weird just continuing on without addressing it, if that makes sense? Similar question, if they are really nervous and start talking, why do they feel the need to calm their nerves and kind of hype themselves up to relax beforehand or try to collect themselves during the event? Wouldn't just being able to talk do that in itself for them naturally. Thus, does anxiety make it harder for even fluent speakers to talk or continue talking, causing them to stumble more and so on? "I think that PWS have created this wrong mindset or stutter image of themselves, because they don't perceive themselves as a fluent speakers, so they blame the imaginary concept in their mind **"as if''** they lack the ability to execute speech movements (which is of course not true, but they think this, they are constantly convincing themselves of this, and each negative stutter situation makes this stronger in their mind. But in actuality we have the ability to execute speech movements, and it's certainly not impaired in any way), in my opinion (everything in this comment is just my opinion)." I agree with this! The confusion lead to those doubts and things that just aren't true. And in my journey I went through a similar realization. Otherwise my incoming stutters would always lead to that endless cycle we discussed above and you re-iterated in your reply below this paragraph. "Argument: Because non-stutterers and PWS don't need to calm themselves down to move the speech muscles. I mean, if you remember your previous experiences in where you spoke fluently when you were hurrying, fearing, panting, not being calm etc, there must have certainly be at least a few moments, in where you were still able to execute movements of the speech muscles (without using avoidance responses or techniques), do you agree?" I agree, I can definitely speak even if I'm...for example, afraid of spiders in the moment or have any fear or pressure even anxiety that doesn't pass a certain threshold. There are moments were I may be shocked but more sad than anxious, or worried, but have more of a resolve than anxiety. Maybe there is a threshold that needs to be met? Like the person that would walk on stage for the first time to give a lecture to a giant audience and they would say they "choked" and just couldn't begin. Couldn't talk? Why would it be so paralyzing, why couldn't they just instruct themselves to talk? Was he or she going through what we go through and fell into the traps you discuss above or did the anxiety really interfere with speech and they had to collect themselves just to be "able" to talk. I tend to think it's a mixed bag. Just like a sports athlete may be paralyzed with fear/tension on all their muscles walking into a game their first time (seeing the giant audience), feeling like they can't properly perform because they are so tense. I wonder if such anxiety does give tension to areas within our speech apparatus interfering with fluent speech? But I tend to agree that it shouldn't stop them from being able to produce speech entirely. It just brings up the overall question, why do we feel like we can't continue on sometimes? Why do we feel like we have to repeat, tense through it, re-instruct ourselves to produce speech again...to begin with? It's like we are talking and then all of a sudden, we cannot get past or continue leading to all of this. For a split second, it seems like we have to restart the process real quick. Sometimes it happens in my head before I even get to the word. I feel that interruption, and calm myself, slow my pace maybe and feel it let go and feel that "no I'll be ok now to continue on" before I even get to it. I wonder if that oddball interruption is beyond our control, but how we handle it isn't. As much as I can imagine it happening by tensing up myself, there are also instances where it happens so fast and out of the blue that I really can't remember how or why I could have tensed up in such an odd moment mid sentence. It felt like a hiccup that came about of it's own volition if that makes sense? But on the flip side, I do feel far more susceptible to that experience with anxiety and a kind of fear that I don't know exactly what I wanna say yet but I wanna express all my feelings to this person and "get them to understand." That kind of confusion/anxiety/pressure on myself makes me feel susceptible to those seemingly "oddball" stutters that I just called hiccups that seem to come and go because I deal with them, they go, but just to come back momentarily. And that is when I feel I need some kind of overall mindset shift or I just remain susceptible to stuttering.