Though I am glad I survived until age 70 when I finally achieved fluency. I had a good life even with my dysfluency. Married well, successfully raised two great children. We each need to value the lives we have. No one can truly know the challenges of others. Just because our ‘defect’ is more evident than another person’s, it's no reason to compare ourselves unfavorably. There are fluent individuals who are underemployed or unemployed, and there are stutterers who are more effective speakers than non-stutterers. There are stutterers with professional careers and fluent people who are living on the street. We have to maximize our circumstances and realize that everything is relative. It may be that ‘it is what it is, but we should always strive to improve our circumstances and not compare ourselves to others. We will never know their secret pains. Sue