I completely agree that it really does need to start being seen as a disability. Sometimes I feel like my life would be so much easier if I was mute and didn’t have the expectation to talk. With a stutter so severe as ours, we shouldn’t be expected to talk either. I relate with the pain too! It rarely happens to me anymore because I’m hardly ever in situations where I NEED to talk, so if I block for too long I’ll just stop talking. But when I was in school for example, and needed to talk for myself I’d push myself through blocks and end up biting my tongue or the inside of my cheeks. I know they say to stop and start over, which I do try, but I just end up in the same exact place no matter how many times I stop and start over or try to relax my mouth. I wish I had some advice for you but honestly the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve learned to accept it (not in the sense that other people here say), in the sense that it’s a disability and not something I can “fix” or fight my way through, and that people with disabilities need accommodations for different ways to do things, and that’s okay. If I need my mom to speak for me or make a phone call for me, that’s okay. If I need to type what I want to say to someone and show them my phone, that’s okay. I’ve also found it massively beneficial to, instead of telling people that I stutter, say that I have a “speech disability.” You’re way more likely to be taken seriously and given help.