We cannot change our genetics, so we should focus on what we can change: the mental factors. What exactly constitutes the stutter cycle of this mental part?

We cannot change our genetics, so we should focus on what we can change: the mental factors. What exactly constitutes the stutter cycle of this mental part? Most stutter theories support the viewpoint that stuttering has physical and mental factors (or genetic/neurological and psychological factors). I absolutely agree. We cannot change our genetics, so we should focus on what we CAN change: the mental factors. In one viewpoint one could argue: "*So for people who stutter - our crural diaphragm has been programmed to contract and freeze in response to fear.*" In other words, we can put this more broadly: **programming** is conditioning. **Contracting/freezing of the diaphragm** *(or being unable to move the laryngeal or articulatory speech muscles)* are the outward manifestations (evoked by the underlying conditioning process or the poorly refined approach-avoidance mechanism). **Contracting/freezing of the diaphragm in response to fear** is an unconditioned response. **Fear** (of social judgements/rejection) is an unconditioned stimulus. **Speaking to someone in a situation**, or simply "the speech plan" (i.e., WHAT and HOW we plan to say the words/sounds) is the conditioned stimulus. Of course, we (i.e., the people who stutter) often are not even consciously aware of this fear; For example: If we speak more appropriately or perfectly or more socially (i.e., conditioned stimuli), we do not necessarily feel fear, but undoubtedly these conditioned stimuli are ultimately linked to a fear of social judgements/rejection so by default, they lead to more stricter regulating when it (i.e., the subconscious brain) should execute speech. I think negative past experiences of communication failure ( where our speech execution failed to achieve the desired listener response) - can over time, (or sometimes during one-time learning in a single or few traumatic events), thru repeated exposure/reinforcement, lead to excessive regulation of speech plan-execution. If this proves true, the formula would then be: On a millisecond timeframe our approach-avoidance response fluctuates: 1. Subconscious brain evaluates conditioned stimuli (associated with this underlying fear). 2. If the total stimuli are evaluated as Net negative, a problem (or error) is interpreted by the Subconscious brain. 3. Which triggers an approach-avoidance "cognitive" conflict. 4. Conditioned response: resulting in excessive error-avoidance, i.e., the need to excessively reduce (i.e., avoid) stimuli associated with fear to execute speech — resulting in excessive regulation to execute speech. 5. There, then, is a failure to execute the speech plan (i.e., the words/sounds we plan to execute/release), i.e., the speech plan execution is suppressed or inhibited. 6. Outward manifestations: ultimately resulting in the stuttering-like disfluencies, e.g., contraction/freezing of the diaphragm. \~\~ Your thoughts? Did I miss something in this stutter cycle?