Fwiw, I feel like worse things have happened to me. I’m an adult onset stutterer. It sucks. Truly sucks. But I’ve experienced situations in life, profession and health which hurt me far more. That’s not to discount the experiences any of you have had; merely to say that even though stuttering has suddenly changed my life and disabled my communication skills and embarrassed the hell out of me, I’d take it over some of my other problems/experiences. This is not to discount the shitty experiences I read about here; only meant from the heart to say that, while it absolutely sucks and interferes with virtually everything, most people aren’t as judgmental as I thought they would be (maybe it changes with age???) and even though I desperately want my fluency back, stuttering hasn’t destroyed everything good in my life. I hope that others can find a way out of the hell of suffering due to stuttering, even if they still stutter. I never thought I’d believe this, but there are actually people who don’t give a damn if I stutter. I especially feel accepted volunteering with others who live with disabilities. Yes, you’d expect them to be more understanding, so perhaps one could say that I’m just sheltering myselfI but that support gives me more confidence to face the rest of the nondisabled, neurotypical world. I hope you meet some of the people who clearly don’t judge you or value you for anything less than the whole person that you are.