For simplicity and clarity, I’ll adopt two terms: First of all “normal stuttering”– to refer to the occasional moments that everyone experiences where our planned words don’t or won’t come out at the moment we intend. And secondly a “stuttering problem” or “stuttering disorder” – which is what we refer to as mainstream stuttering, which is when a person has become sensitized to the fact that some of their words don’t come out when intended and has fallen into a vicious circle whereby they anticipate such moments of stuttering, evaluate them negatively, fear them, and compulsively try to avoid them. My answer to the question “how can we change this mundane stigma?” I think one answer is to try to help people to understand stuttering in shades of grey rather than in black and white. Generally speaking, mild stuttering without fear of stuttering and without any compulsive behaviours associated with it is not a disorder and can indeed be a blessing (for example it can stop us saying things that might otherwise get us into trouble). In contrast, severe stuttering with all the associated sensitivities, fears and other secondary behaviours is definitely a problem and is certainly not a blessing. I find it helpful to explain to people that the Stuttering Disorder constitutes one end of a continuum, and that Tourettes Syndrome (Tourette’s Disorder) is the other end of the same continuum. So, for example, people with Tourette’s disorder have the opposite problem to people with a Stuttering Disorder, inasmuch as people with a stuttering disorder worry about not being able to get their words out, whereas people with Tourette’s Disorder worry that they can’t stop themselves doing so. In other words, people with Tourette’s disorder worry about their tendency to automatically say whatever thoughts enter their mind. They have difficulty holding things in. Both of these two disorders involve the same mechanism… namely the “release threshold” for the execution of speech plans. In people with a stuttering disorder, the release threshold rises too high, whereas with people with Tourette’s Disorder it falls too low. In contrast, with normal speakers, the release threshold remains somewhere between these two extremes, and when it lies between these two extremes, it helps us to say the right things at the right moment and helps us to avoid saying things that would be socially inappropriate and that might get us into trouble. If people could understand this mechanism, and the useful role it performs (when it is working properly) I think they would have less of a tendency to arrive at the overly simplistic black and white perspective that “stuttering is (always) a blessing” which is currently common in the stuttering community. The truth is that normal stuttering is sometimes a blessing, but a stuttering disorder is a real hinderance/handicap which prevents people from thriving and reaching their potential. The same is true for Tourette’s disorder, although out of the two, I think Tourette’s can have an even more detrimental effect on people’s lives than stuttering. Interestingly, there have been cases where people start to stutter when they recover from Tourette’s syndrome, and also some cases of people who develop Tourette’s syndrome when they recover from stuttering. I note that people on reddit advocate speaking without thinking about the words one will use. I personally think that if one were to adopt this crutch, it risks tipping the balance too far the other way… by making one prone to saying things that might be socially inappropriate. I also see that crutch as a form of avoidance, because we clearly do have the capacity to think about what words we want to say without our thoughts stimulating compulsive fears of stuttering on certain words.