I had a presentations where I stuttered horribly, and I heard some of my classmates laugh. I suffered through the rest of my presentation. It was on a pretty technical topic, so there were a lot of long, juicy words to butcher. When I sat back down, my heart was beating through my chest, my face felt like it was melting off, and I think I was close to blacking out. I spent the rest of class not looking at anyone, especially the girl I had thought was cute. This was in my first year of college. I have never postponed or avoided speaking assignments in school or at work. The pain is internal, but so is my strength. My reaction to public speaking is no longer as bad, mostly because I don’t care as much about stuttering. Ironically, I think this frame of mind helps me stutter less. I would recommend jumping head first into speaking situations. Say what you want no matter how much you stutter. Eventually, it got better for me, at the very least I don’t have panic attacks every time I have to give a report in front of multiple department managers.