I haven't given up, but I also don't always use techniques I've learned over the years. I spent a lot of my childhood and early adulthood not speaking, expressing myself or defending my self vocally - often times defense came physically - but now I say pretty much whatever I want when I want. This isn't to say I act an ass, rather that I'll go to the drive thru when I want, I'll answer and even make that phone call at work without, or with minimal issue or concern. The reality is that I stutter, and I'm likely to always stutter. I'm just no longer let it stop me from being who I am. And others can deal with it...however long it takes. 😂 For example, I use to allow people to say the word for me and I'd continue off that. I don't do that anymore. They can fill I whatever word they want, I'm going to continue saying what I was saying. As for the mean, yeah. Definitely get that. I'm much more open these days to asking people "What exactly is so funny about my speech?" Just the other day someone over the phone said I keep breaking up when I talk. I told them: Yeah, that's my speech. If you could bear with me a minute that would be awesome. He apologized and I got the information I needed. There are definitely more malicious folk out there, thankfully they've been much fewer and far between in my adult life.