Being explicit about stuttering - bringing up the subject

Being explicit about stuttering - bringing up the subject Hey all, First of all: I'm pretty grateful that I've stumbled accros this community. I had been searching - although quite passively - for a subreddit like this for a while; glad to see that it's here and quite active as well, so it appears. Anyway, I've been tackling with stuttering for basically all of my life, and, as many can probably relate, it has had its ups and downs. Lately (the past 2/3 years or so) it has definitely been quite a problem, so I went to seek help at a speech therapist last January. During therapy, my major problem slowly started to reveal; I really have troubles with being explicit about stuttering. Basically, the last years I have developped a well-working 'avoiding technique', meaning that I am able to perfectly cover up most of my unfluencies, by changing word orders, coming up with synonyms rapidly, and so on. I mastered this technique on such a level that even my speech therapist had trouble with identifying my stutters; I really, *really* covered them up. While this technique can cover up about 80% of my unfluencies, I am least comfortable with it, as it basically prevents me of being able to say what I actually *want* to say. Again, I believe avoiding thechniques aren't that uncommon among people who stutter, so I'm pretty sure some of you will relate. My current issue is that, because my avoiding technique has prevented me from being explicit about stuttering at all, I believe most people that I have face-to-face contact with on a daily or weekly basis (most of my friends, for instance) do not even know I suffer from stuttering. Currently, my therapy has thus focussed on being more explicit about stuttering, meaning that currently I try to *not* avoid my stuttering and, basically, being open about it. This also involves that I will have to talk about with friends. But that is the main worry: I am really having a hard time with bringing up the subject. I rarely speak about my feelings and worries, because it's just something that I am genuinely extremely uncomfortable with, and I have no idea of how I could bring up the subject without being asked about it or so. So that is my question - is there anyone that would be able to advice me on bringing up the subject? I am sorry for the long story - I figured that some introduction would be helpful. Thanks for reading, in any case.