I worded that part a bit wrong. It’s possible and very common with a stutter, but not possible if you fully take control of your stutter, which requires the not caring what others think, putting yourself out there, etc, that I’ve mentioned. I have felt trapped by it for sure, but only when I cared a lot about what others thought and was consumed with so much fear of stuttering. I again worded my statement a bit wrong with the self worth/relaxation part. I find self worth through all those activities from getting good grades on exams, getting internships with high selectivity, and in terms of hobbies I am pretty good at soccer/football, piano, singing, and I read a lot. The academia and professional (finance is my field btw) stuff isn’t very relaxing, but in terms of finding success in those pursuits most of it didn’t rely on my speaking ability for me, but when it did I was able to do pretty ok through just focusing on what I wanted/needed to say rather than how I was gonna say it. In terms of what is relaxing to me, which is hobbies, these pursuits don’t really require speaking so I can’t comment on the relationship between speaking and relaxation in terms of those activities that well. What I can say is that I find that devoting yourself fully to some hobbies sometimes is really helpful in disrupting those cycles of fear, anxiety, etc. that the stutter often causes, and when those cycles are disrupted fluency levels usually go up as well.