>If I were able to forget I stuttered, would it go away? **Question #1:** What is your opinion? I mean, do you think stuttering goes away if you forget that you stutter? In my opinion, yes and no. First of all, I think there are at least 100 ways to outgrow stuttering. So you have likely a completely different perspective than me. However, while I may look from an angle at the back of a glass of water, you may be looking at the same glass of water from a different angle. We may both be right in some aspects and can learn from each other hence this forum. **No**, IMO stuttering doesn't go away, if we forget that we stutter by ignoring triggers (or distracting ourselves from them by focusing on breathing, others or on what to say). Yes indeed, we may not stutter anymore temporarily but we don't unlearn our stutter behavior or how we deal with thoughts and emotions that prevent us from firing the neuron to move our articulator muscles. Additionally, we don't weaken the association between intention and anticipation. Finally, if we apply distraction in order to avoid and ignore anticipatory fear, then we are telling our instinct that stuttering is a problem (which creates complicated behavior). **Yes**, IMO stuttering could go away, if we forget that we stutter by being aware of our speech process and then unlearning the aspects (in the speech process) that keep the stutter cycle alive - in order to improve neoplastic adaptations. Each person who stutters (PWS) stutters differently. In my case, my stutter cycle is: 1. I know or feel that I will stutter (my trigger) 2. Then I react to it (like panic) 3. Then I activate my blaming mentality to use this trigger as an excuse to stop (choosing with) moving my articulators (dopaminergic punishment system) 4. Then I do unhelpful interventions like focusing on symptoms, secondary behaviors, desensitizing etc 5. Finally I stop focusing on the intention to move my articulators which causes a speech block One neuron is needed to activate a series of activations in the motor cortex. So, we can focus on firing that one neuron to move muscles of our articulators, which is what non-stutterers do. How do we focus on firing that shot? My initial answer to focus on firing that shot (that I told myself), was: 1. I visualize in my mind on the word 'intention' 2. By focusing on the word 'intention' (to choose to move my articulators) I'm firing the neuron to move articulator muscles 3. While I am aware of my speech process (mentioned above) to reinforce neuroplasticity **Question #2**: Do you have other ideas on how to focus on firing the neurons to move the muscles of our articulators? I mean, what are all the things you've tried to fire neurons to move the speech muscles during a speech block? In my opinion, one way to forget stuttering in order to outgrow stuttering, is to be aware of our stutter programming in our striatum: \- I don't focus on prosody (say: I don't focus on inflection/fluency accent or timing/rhythm) \- No intention: If I speak on auto-pilot, by default, I don't have (say: I don't focus on) intention to fire neurons to move articulator muscles \- I plan ahead that I stop moving articulators \- I focus on 1 planned word (rather than several planned words ahead, which is what non-stutterers do) \- I scan for stutters \- I visualize stopping my articulators \- I tense my abdominal muscles (rather than relaxing them, which is what non-stutterers do) \- I scan for (say: I wait out) excuses to hold back 'focusing on firing neurons to move articulators' \- I scan for things that I may do wrong during the speech process \- I activate my blaming mentality to allow a freeze/panic response \- I label fluency as wrong which negates: 'learning' and 'neuroplasticity' \- I act as if I stutter **Conclusion**: The exact opposite of above list is in my opinion 'the confidence' that 80% of PWS who outgrow stuttering, often mention. If so, then 'confidence to speak fluently' has a totally different meaning than what PWS believe it is. The exact opposite of above list could be considered: 1. creating new habits 2. and retraining the striatum which eventually leads to forgetting stuttering and its complicated behaviors resulting in weakening the association between our stutter behavior, thoughts & feelings *and* our stutter triggers