Do you control your stutter, or does the stutter control you?

Do you control your stutter, or does the stutter control you? I've seen countless times people saying how horrible stuttering is, not being able to order the food you enjoy, tell a friend something they didn't know about or making friends in general. **How long will you let your stutter control you**, until you step aside from your comfort zone (filled with avoiding the problem, e.g confronting it). **But then later on to your life realize how it controls your life and complain about it on the internet.** Still baffles me **how people don't search online about techniques** such as: easy onset, cancellation, stretching, meditation, costal breathing which can help decrease stuttering *(judging the survey we had a while back 47% of 105 people don't do any exercises to improve their speech '_>', I'm sorry but what do you expect?? if you want to be a more fluent speaker, you have to be willing to change.).* **Or try something you fear doing; calling stores/resturants asking simple questions, asking people for directions/explainations and so on.** God if I know just talk and become more comfertable doing the stuff you hate. You will eventually become a better speaker or feel less dreadful about yourself. How long will you live in the shadow of your stutter? *Even if you don't get rid of stuttering entirely just accept that you stutter and express yourself.* **Stop caring about what other people think about your stutter** and overthink about the encounter later on, **it's pointless and uneccesarily and does A LOT more harm** then good. They are probably occupied with something else then your stutter, after the conversation. **A teenagers mind is self destructive** also because it's the period where you are most unsure about yourself and your identity (I was depressed before and overthought a lot on my way home from school on the train, but not anymore:^) ) **Most adults stop giving a fuck about what other people think**, and they manage continuing with their lives. Also being less insecure in general helps with fluency cause it relieves stress. **Enjoy the "small victories"** *being able to order your favorite starbucks coffee without stuttering*, live your life to the fullest and don't let anything hold you back. *I'm confident that the people on the banner moved on, accomplishing great things instead of being "stuck" about how people perceive their stutter in their younger years.* I myself have a friend that stuttered in highschool. We would always express ourselves to classmates/eachother and have presentations without excuses. **I hate to see fellow stutterers in misery cause we are all experiencing the same things someway or another.** **But letting it control your life to extreme degrees such as:** *not being able to take drivers license, getting a job/relationship/friends just makes me sad.* You are not alone. Please try confronting your fears improving over time, or getting professional help (Psychiatrist, Speech Language Pathologist etc.) *Get a control over your stutter instead of it controlling you. It is a part of you nontheless but don't let it take decisions for you by avoiding social interactions. We humans are social animals.* *"Pain is temporary, glory is forever"* Feel free to join our discord server if you want to meet other stuttereres and improve your fluency on voice chat. [Learn how to join and more about discord here. You don't need to be at your computer to join the chat as there's an app for both IOS and Android!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/49eoxn/rstutter_discord_server_text_voice_chat/?st=j884wrjq&sh=ad83c470)