No idea how universal this experience is, but for me, a large part of my anxiety and avoidance was due to my fear of a bad speaking situation. Being judged. Being counterproductive. Having someone laugh at me. Wasting my breath. Actually experiencing those situations taught me a valuable lesson. Most people don't fucking care. I'm not just saying that as a platitude, either. Everyone has their own problems they're dealing with. Everyone has their own version of a 'stutter' they're fixated on. I'm barely a speck in their day. I realized how much weird narcissism my mindset on stuttering had instilled within me, and that this was a bigger cause of my anxiety than anything else. I did have some bad experiences, but I got through them. They were no longer scary unknowns, they were things I could face and get past. They don't haunt me. Before I used to see verbal interaction as a battle I was heading into, like I was instanty putting the person I was speaking with into a villain role. But when I'm communicating with someone, it's a team sport. We're in this together, and 99% of the time, the person I'm talking to is just rooting for me. So aside from learning that the bad scenarios were both rare and something I could get past, I also learned to have better faith in people. Also, experiencing the feeling of actually expressing myself was a huge high for me. It's a big motivator I would have otherwise never seen if I hadn't tried.