I've been meaning to respond to this post, but my time has been short recently, and I'm only just now getting around to it. I'm well into my 40s with a moderate-to-severe stutter. I'm also 20+ years into a career as a teacher, so I spent most of my days talking. I've also had periods in my life where it feels like my speech infects every aspect of my life, and nothing helps. What has helped me isn't so much "thinking positive" or "being optimistic," because forced positive thinking can be as oppressive as negative thinking. Instead, doing things that promote a positive mindset has been so much more helpful. I'm not talking about repeating affirmations (though if it helps you, do it). I'm about the obvious things like getting enough sleep, eating right, and exercising, but it also includes things like learning a new skill or sharpening an old one. Developing my creative interests has been invaluable to me, because the end result is a product that nothing and nobody can take away from me. And honest... no one would really want to. I see a lot of posts here from people who feel that their speech has constrained their social/romantic world. I've TOTALLY felt that too, but the reality is that other people (in general) care a lot less about your speech than you do. That's doubly true if you've put the time into other aspects of yourself (see above). TBH, romantic interests will even find it endearing. What's also been helpful for me is letting go of the idea of perfect speech. Let's be honest, even fluent speakers aren't perfect, and our stutter probably isn't going away.... and if it did, we'd find something else to hate about ourselves. Instead, I try to give myself "speech challenges" when I feel like my speech is good (eg. calling in a pizza order or striking up a conversation with a stranger) and leaning into the things I mentioned above when it's not. Hopefully this helps.