>Both these things I can relate to very much. I always feel like I KNOW when I will stutter and when I won't. If I read your post correctly, do you also agree with this approach? Great reply. You bring some very interesting ideas! Regarding '*I feel like I know when I will stutter*', this is considered anticipatory anxiety. You can watch these [videos](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anticipatory+anxiety) that explain this very well, so this is my attempt to put it in my own words, according to research, stutterers when they begin with stuttering (for example, when they are a child) then they never start out with 'stuttering anticipation'. Research found that children mainly stutter because they develop an unhelpful belief/attitude of: * 'fear of negative listeners responses' * and 'stuttering is a problem and needs to be avoided Because of these unhelpful beliefs/attitudes: * we created avoidance-behaviors and secondaries * we made a habit of monitoring and applying unhelpful corrections e.g., relying on sensory feedback which only disrupts the forward flow of speech If people who stutter (PWS) become adults, then most of them have developed '*advanced stuttering*' which includes '*the need to anticipate stuttering*'. According to research, most **adults** block because of stuttering anticipation. Of course, human beings cannot at all predict the future, so 'stuttering anticipation' is not true, it's simply 'intrusive thoughts and feelings'. Researchers in this new [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7213478/) succeeded in eliciting a near-equal distribution of unambiguously stuttered and fluent utterances during the production of single words by leveraging stuttering anticipation. This suggests that dealing with stuttering anticipation can reduce disruptions in the forward flow of speech. Conclusion: You said: '***So, on one hand, I feel like I need to 'face' my anticipatory fear and to willingly stutter whenever I feel I cannot speak.***' Answer: yes indeed, one helpful strategy that you correctly pointed out, is facing '*anticipatory thoughts*' and '*anticipatory body sensations*' (e.g., often PWS feel a pressure on the throat that we learned to associate with stuttering anticipation). I recommend that all PWS visit a therapist/psychologist who is specialized in anticipatory fear to passively observe the throat, thoughts and other sensations that we learned to perceive as stuttering anticipation, learning to accept them (by acknowledging that they are in our mind) to build tolerance and detach importance. Another strategy is to learn to let them go (by keeping these anticipatory sensations in our mind and body while moving our attention away). ACT defusion [strategies](https://www.google.com/search?q=defusion+strategies+act) can also deal with anticipatory anxiety in stuttering. Basically, negative experiences have led us to stop believing in our feedforward system and instead, in a lack of knowledge and in a lack for a better solution, we learned to immerse ourselves in intrusive thoughts and feelings in a failed attempt to try to predict stuttering (with the goal of controlling stuttering). However, doing what the 'stuttering anticipation' says, will only lead us further away from reality and it will only allow us to scan for speech errors which by itself creates speech blocks. You can read this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/zo27jv/comment/j0kibcn/?context=3), [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/xr6luy/tips_for_people_who_stutter_advice_on_how_to/) post and [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/10xtnr8/tips_to_improve_stuttering_by_working_on/) post, that explain it better.