I decided a year ago to put myself out there more. I can only speak for myself, and I am very conscious that other people have unfortunately made the same decision as me and gone on to have negative experiences, but I have concluded that most of the fears that I had about other people were unfounded, and most of the internal frustrations that I had with my speech were largely arbitrary. I certainly think it is possible to go too far too fast and would encourage you work with a speech therapist and to be transparent about your goals. I dont know if we are able to make recommendations on here, but suffice to say there are good speech therapists out there who understand that what we have is so much more than just a physical disability, and that that the years of fear/isolation/anger also need to be addressed. I turned 30 and started to get really scared I would look back when I was 40 and realise I wasted my life. Life is too precious and short to not at least try and enjoy.