> people being cruel to me about my speech every time i open my mouth is what’s held me back my whole life. not my stutter. You are right. It's not your stutter. It's fear. People can be cruel to us which causes us shame and then leads to fear of it happening to us again. And here is the crazy thing about fear. It is predicting the future for us. The situation you describe happens a small amount of time if you look at every speaking situation. So rather than focusing on say ~<5% chance that a cruel situation occurs, remember than it doesn't happen the vast majority of times.