Please stop comparing stuttering to other disabilities.

Please stop comparing stuttering to other disabilities. I've been stopping myself from ranting about this, but I've seen one too many comparisons recently. I fully expect this won't be well received in this sub, but it's my hope that at least one person hears me. It angers me when people equate stuttering to blindness, paraplegics, or other permanent physical disabilities. I was a severe stutterer from toddler to my 20's. With hard work and a great speech therapist, I was able to achieve fluency. Not everyone achieves fluency, but fluency is an option for the majority of stutterers. It's by no means easy. I'm very proud that I was able to achieve fluency. I'm associated with a children's sled hockey team. Children ages from 3 to 16, with an assortment of disabilities. These kids are amazing. But to compare stuttering to their physical disabilities is no comparison. People with physical disabilities work hard every day just to maintain their current level of function. As these kids get older, they often lose function due to their increase in size. I've done the work to get fluent. I've seen the work people with physical disabilities put in. I would have never got fluent if it required the amount of work they put in. I put in a year's work to improve. They put in a lifetime of work just to try to maintain. I know most of the population have never carried anything as heavy as your stutter. But trust me, others have much greater burdens to bear. Watch a kid on crutches get left behind on the playground every day, as his peers run wildly from one end to the other. Try to imagine always being left behind. Consider the dozens of surgeries and months upon months that any one of these kids spend in hospitals. Not to improve, but just to maintain. It's wrong to make any comparison. And I'm likely wrong for this rant. Bu the next time you're about to equate stuttering to being in a wheelchair, blind, or some other disability without a treatment or cure, please consider my words.