>" I'd be more than happy to chat about this further if you want to drop me a line." \-> Me too, I'd always be happy to PM in order to discuss reaching fluency. After all, there is no cure, so instead of waiting for one let's put our heads together. There is no cure for stuttering. If there is a cure in 100 years, what could it be about? "If you started stuttering very young, the self awareness is not there and you have not associated stuttering moments with negative feelings yet." \-> I agree. But then the question arises, if not perceived stresses (aka pressure), what causes you to stutter on the first day or in the first week? What is your opinion? In my opinion, the root cause of stuttering (when a kid) is not fear/doubt, but our negative thought: "I accept that I stutter" (with its mentality thoughts) as you create more and more thoughts to cling to the acceptance of stuttering. Does it make sense? In the text below as a heads up, I want to specifically address: 'Accepting stuttering' and not 'fear/doubt (pressure/stresses)'. \-> Some people stutter when they are alone. But if they speak alone, then they do not experience fear/anxiety. Do you agree? So the question then is, what standpoint do they have when speaking alone? The answer is: the standpoint they have is that I'm ok with stuttering moments, I will occasionally stutter, they don't know how to speak 'a syllable' fluently, stuttering is normal for them, etc and they have more thoughts of accepting their stuttering. In my opinion, this is the root cause of stuttering when you are alone. I tested this with myself, and I confirm that I 'accept stuttering'. Every time I stutter, I tell myself "I cannot say this letter fluently" or "I want to feel a blocking in my mouth" (and if I feel pressure when I'm talking outside, then I tell myself: I don't have time to remove 'accepting stuttering' thoughts so I give up on trying and the result is: I expect a stutter) and the result is also that I proof to myself: "See? I stuttered, nothing works so I need 'more' so I give up on trying to remove 'accepting stutter' thoughts which causes a stutter expectation (in my experience). \-> Many stutterers think: "If I try to speak fluently, then stuttering becomes worse" (stresses/pressure). So they expect a stutter because of stresses (pressure). Result: people do not TRY to speak fluently. Problem: if we never TRY fluency, then we won't reach fluency. For example: \- Situation A: In the first week you experience stuttering. Your elementary school teacher says: I'm sorry but I cannot help you, some people stutter (and they won't overcome it) and other people don't stutter. That's life -> not constructive towards fluency \- Situation B: Everyone tells you: if you stutter, then it doesn't mean you ARE a stutterer. Just relax, don't fear/doubt fluency, don't expect stuttering (believe you can do it), speak natural, want to do it, you're allowed to do it. -> constructive towards fluency Solution: in my opinion, we can stop expecting a stutter by changing the stress/pressure: \- "Stuttering is my way of speaking" to a positive affirmation "Fluency is my way of speaking" \- "If I stutter, then it doesn't mean that I should stutter more" \- "I don't care what other people think of my fluency. I only care about my opinion, that I want, can and I'm allowed to speak fluently" So my solution goes further than desensitizing fear (deliberate stuttering) where overt stutterers don't TRY to speak fluently. Overt stutterers don't change all their stressors to fluency, for example they don't change the negative thought "Stuttering is my way of speaking" to "Fluency is my way of speaking". What is your opinion? So during a stutter, if you ask yourself 'why did I just now stutter', does your mind know the answer if you really focus on observing your mind? Remember, the root thoughts are unconscious but in my experience if I focus on my mind, then I always know the answer why I stuttered. So I make the unconscious thought conscious. "And as soon as that starts happening it's hard to reverse that." \-> I agree. But this doesn't mean that perceived stresses came first or is even the root cause because apparently this is not how you started stuttering so what's to say fear/doubt/pressure is actually not the root cause (when you were a kid and also an adult)? Do you see where I'm going with this? Also, if people stutter when they are alone, they don't feel stresses. But they still stutter. "I've formed a personal opinion that its noones business to care how fluent I am in a particular moment (and I cringe inside when people are trying to be nice and say oh I haven't heard you stutter as much)." \-> I agree, me too I cringe inside but I also know deep down that it's not their fault that I stutter. Only one person is to blame if you are honest, do you agree? \-> Let's get down to your semantics but YMMV. Now you say you don't care about others having an opinion about your fluency, but then you cringe if they have an opinion about it. Am I correct to assume this? But then you still care about it, it's more unconscious and it means you are too emotional about other's opinion. The solution in my opinion is, don't feel attached and emotional about their opinion about the fact that you can/will/may/want to speak fluently. \-> However, I say YMMV because you think: "I choose to allow the existence of stuttering without interference", and you don't think like this: "I can, will, may, want to speak fluently". In fact, you accept stuttering so much that you ignore a basic human behavior and a basic fluency-law: "I can, I will, I'm allowed to and I want to speak fluently". If you are already in advanced discarding this idea which causes expecting a stutter every time you enter a situation, then of course you will expect a stutter whenever you talk. What is your opinion? I mean, before you speak to people you are not trying to boost confidence in fluency like: "I know I will speak fluently, I can do it". In your experience, you are not preparing this because for you it's okay to speak fluently or stutter, whichever happens what comes may. "Stuttering, IMO, doesnt have to be a bad thing, as much as fluency doesnt have to be a good thing. I'm done trying to fix in society's box." \-> I understand and respect your opinion. I disagree with choosing a stutter mentality which only creates unconsciously expecting a stutter. \-> You could argue: "I'm ok with stuttering moments, but I'm not predicting that it's going to happen." and "I don't think I am unconsciously creating more negative feelings for myself. It's an interesting discussion for sure." and "that possibility of stuttering is ok". \-> But that's the crux, repressed negative thoughts about your stutter expectation are unconscious by nature so you wouldn't know that you are (unconsciously) predicting that you will stutter. \-> Also, very important to know is that your standpoint about 'having a stutter' is: 'having a stutter is not a negative thing by itself'. But from a psychological standpoint where one approaches 'complete fluency like a non-stutterer' (this is my aim of my post/comments), then the standpoint should be: one should unlearn the incorrect behavior (false belief) of: 'expecting a stutter', in order to reach fluency by natural speaking without techniques. In my opinion, we can stop expecting a stutter by removing thoughts about 'accepting that we stutter' (and remove unconscious fear/doubt of fluency). If I accept a 'belief' as truth like Friday the 13th, then I start expecting effects of this belief (like misfortune on Friday 13th). I start believing in my negative thoughts by making this false belief visible, needed, satisfying and easier and making counter arguments of my belief invisible, unneeded, unsatisfying and more difficult. So we cling to that belief by reinforcing it selectively seeking all evidence that supports that belief while casually disregarding the critique of the belief. Over time we get enough selective examples of “evidence” to confirm the belief, it would become true to the person or possibly described as one piece of one’s larger worldview. We can limit interpretations about information by understanding it with respect to moral standards (like: fluency is normal for humans)(instead of "I'm ok with stuttering moments"). As well as this we can understand said piece of information with regards to it’s viability, and actualization in reality.