You are not alone in feeling like this. Stuttering can severely affect confidence and self-esteem. It all boils down to the think-feel-act cycle. Negative thoughts lead to emotions (stress, anxiety, shame) which in turn lead to actions (avoidance, more stuttering). Changing your negative belief system isn’t simple but hugely important. The more someone fights against their stutter, the more they try to hide it, avoid words, people, certain situations, the worse their stutter gets. This is because when someone stutters, their brain is already producing too much tension in the speech muscles. If they struggle against that, they add even more tension which can lead to severe blocks. If they learn to relax instead of fighting against their stutter, they will be more fluent. Nothing about this is easy or simple. Stuttering usually starts in childhood so by the time someone reaches adulthood they had thousands of opportunities to develop ingrained negative thought patterns and behaviours around stuttering. These negative thoughts can trigger extreme anxiety. Because we are aware of how important it is not just to work on the physical aspects of stuttering by teaching fluency enhancing techniques, our team at BeneTalk have made it part of our mission to look after our user’s emotional growth and well-being. We help people who stutter to change their belief system step-by-step while at the same time teaching them fluency enhancing techniques that give them control and confidence in any situation.