From my personal experiences, this is a valid connection to make. But drawing this connection between confidence and stuttering also opens the door to a lot of personal mind games and self inflicted stress from trying to figure out how get back to that point of confidence and a false belief that you can only get there if you don’t stutter in speaking situations. I confided in my boss today after a difficult presentation about how stuttering for me is a challenge. He told me in a very supportive way not to give a fuck about what other people think and that every person has personal battles, hardships, and or demons that they struggle with. Stuttering is a problem that manifests outwardly, and we can spiral into losing confidence when we stutter. The mind games can come from trying to figure out how you can regain that confidence and a false belief that you need to have experiences where you are successfully fluent to regain that confidence. For myself, that confidence we seek is truly built upon by continuously seeking to be courageous and engaging in the experiences and speaking situations that you wish you could comfortably engage in if you didn’t stutter. It helps to not be hard on yourself. Stuttering does not define you as a human being. When you stutter it is not failure, just a facet of you as a person that you are working hard at. Don’t make the mistake of letting fear of stuttering keep you from doing what you want in life. It feels good when you know you most likely will stutter but you went ahead and did that thing anyways. This is where I find I build confidence, and yes it does make speaking easier, possibly because I begin to live in the moment and seek the experiences I want without letting stuttering keep me from living my life and sharing who I am and what I have to offer.