I have been stuttering all my life and this is what has helped me.

I have been stuttering all my life and this is what has helped me. Hello everyone. I just found this subreddit and wanted to share my story and hope it helps someone. ​ I have been stuttering all my life and it was a hard stuttering. Because of this, I never had any friends, no one wanted to wait for me to get a word out. For 17 years I was completely alone, thank god I had fantastic parents and sister otherwise I would not have talked to anyone. ​ I went to many speech therapists and different classes but nothing helped. What really helped me was the first day of high school that I told myself I was going to make friends. I talked to everyone I could little by little, I raised my hand in the classroom to answer questions anyway if it took me 1 minute to say a word. ​ When I was at a restaurant i ordered food myself, I went to the shops just to practice asking people for help. ​ What I want to say is that I forced myself to talk, I stopped being afraid and nervous about what others will think of me. It helped me i made my first friends for the first time in 17 years. They forced me to talk, they joked about my stuttering sometimes to force me to joke about them. ​ When I started university i had my first oral presentation for 80 people. Weeks before the presentation, I felt bad, I was stressed, I vomited. One day before the presentation i told myself fuck this why am i scared and nervous let them think what they think. I stood and talked in front of 80 people and i stuttured like crazy but i didn't give a fuck i took a pause if i needed and the teacher gave me extra time and after the report everyone clapped and i had to answer questions. Now I'm 26 years old and talk like nothing else, when I'm at the bar with friends I talk to others and joke with them. I hold meetings at work. ​ What helped me was that I stopped thinking about what others thought about me and my stuttering, I took the chance to talk when I could. I practiced at home by reading loud, giving an presentation in front of the mirror. If you guys have any questions just ask i will try to help. **Don't be afraid be brave. You have nothing to be ashamed of.**