My experience is similar to yours, lifelong mild stutter that has always come and gone. It's been worse as an adult though, with some significant "flare-ups" so to speak, periods of time where it has gotten worse and presented in ways that I didn't experience as a child (I would no longer describe it as mild during these phases, more moderate, almost all my sentences full of stutters but I can still speak). I have thought a lot about causes and triggers, but I haven't done a lot of real research about it e.g. books or podcasts. > t traditional speech and Language Pathology that treats stuttering as a medical or genetic condition is flawed... the root of stuttering is psychological and not physical I don't think stuttering is a 100% non-physical thing but I do think there are psychological factors that are not yet fully understood or addressed. Some examples from my own experiences: There are some circumstances in which I hardly stutter at all, and interestingly public speaking is one of them (as long as I can paraphrase...volunteering to present awards one time was not a great idea). I think it's because everybody just has to sit there and listen to me so I am in no real hurry. Conversely in social situations, the more people that are in a conversation the more I stutter. I think this is due to the pressure to speak before the topic changes, finish before someone else interjects, etc. Timing can be very important in conversation and that puts a lot of subconscious pressure on stutterers. I remember one time a dancing teammate commented at class that I was on fire today (or something to that effect) because I had been cracking jokes at opportune moments all night - the truth is I always have those jokes/thoughts/comments, but I usually can't say them quickly enough so I don't bother trying.