Excellent explanations. Desire is a bad thing when it consumes us. Dissolving my "Stuttering conditioning" and reconditioning myself to be a powerful verbal communicator while letting go of my wise need to be perfectly verbally "fluent" has made an enormous difference to my verbal quality of life. Our obsession to be 100% fluent may be ineffective at best. Because this brings unnecessary fear and anxiety. Regarding the post, by **desire** I specifically refer to: * the desire to immediately: "*instruct to execute motor movements*" whenever we have the urge or **desire** to speak a sound. Non-stutterers apply this desire to manage the forward flow of speech. Even people who stutter "instruct to execute motor movements", otherwise we would be stuck on the same sound for 10 years. So, we might as well accept and use this desire to our benefit (instead of fearing this desire which then comes out in manipulative and back doorways), in my opinion. If we avoid the desire to immediately instruct to execute motor movements, then we are reinforcing unhelpful beliefs/attitudes to wait out and hold back speech which creates a stutter disorder itself, in my opinion. Then this may result in developing an unhelpful belief that speech is difficult. How do you view this? If a person develops a belief that speech is difficult or that they will struggle, it can create a cycle of negative thoughts and emotions that contribute to actual speech difficulties. It's similar to people with a **conversion disorder**, the erroneous belief that one is paralyzed or blind can affect the brain's processing and result in the corresponding physical symptoms. If someone believes that they will struggle with speech, they may exhibit behaviors such as avoiding certain words or situations, tensing muscles, or experiencing anxiety, which can actually contribute to speech difficulties. Likewise, in conversion disorder, the belief in paralysis or blindness can result in exhibiting physical symptoms consistent with those beliefs. If a person experiences difficulty or negative outcomes related to speech, such as being teased or experiencing embarrassment, they may develop and reinforce the belief that speech is inherently difficult. Similarly, in conversion disorder, the belief in paralysis or blindness may be reinforced by attention, sympathy, or avoidance of responsibilities that may accompany those symptoms. I think that this belief could turn into a self-image of a person who stutters. Let me explain. Habits begin as spiderwebs, and become cables, such as conditioned speech fears, conditioned struggle behaviors, learned stress patterns, and self-image. Self-image is the product of our perceptions of the way others react to us. For example, parents expressing their concern or disapproval directly, or indicating it with their body language. This may lead to intense shyness and feelings of inferiority and guilt, and may lower self-confidence, which is part of the self-image. A poor self-image can have a negative effect on one’s behaviour and achievements and set in motion a vicious circle. Psychologists report that the self-image affects virtually every aspect of life, and that many psychological and physiological problems have their origin in a poor self-image. One would expect that, should our fluency improve, the self-image would automatically follow and get better. However, that’s not at all a foregone conclusion. Some PWS - who believe that they can speak fluently - may find it difficult to really come to terms with their new fluency achieved. In my case, if I speak fluently, I think: "*But this isn’t me!*". Resulting in not (1) having the desire "*to immediately instruct execution of speech movements*" whenever I have the desire to say a sound, or (2) applying stress management, and then I begin to stutter. I think that PWS often view normal events (such as disfluencies or errors) repeatedly as negative.. and they immerse themselves in a lack of self-efficacy, which may then lead to panic responses (aka fight flight freeze). As you pointed out: "*I understand that that is unobtainable*", however it's not about anticipating or predicting the future, about labeling or about reinforcing (1) a negative self-image, (2) self-efficacy, (3) repetitive negative thinking, or (4) unhelpful beliefs/attitudes. Rather it's about distinguishing what we can and cannot control; this includes replacing an unhelpful attitude with a helpful attitude to "**instruct** sending command signals to the brain to execute motor movements" whenever we have the intention to implement our prosody. This is simply based on how I understand our stuttering problem. Everyone looks at it through a different lens. Let's share our insights and learn from each other