We need to raise awareness within ourselves of what we are talking about. Stuttering is NOT caused by nervousness/anxiety of the immediate situation. But if you can speak comfortably and fluently when alone, but block and have fear the moment another person enters the picture, then it’s definitely nervous/anxiety about *speaking situations from your past where you felt judged*. There is no shame in acknowledging this. I’m specifically referring to disabling panic-style blocks with associated avoidance behaviors. If you fear having to say your own name and have thought of ways to change it somehow, this applies to you. For example - You are not inherently scared to order coffee at Starbucks. But probably sometimes in your early childhood, you spoke imperfectly, people laughed or told you to speak better, etc. Your young brain decided you needed to *try really really hard* to speak “better”. Unfortunately, this overload of effort IS what causes blocks. Repetitions and prolongations do not are not our problem. Hard blocks and associated avoidance behaviors ARE the problem. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we’ll learn how to speak comfortably and more fluently.