It absolutely did. Talking to the opposite sex was a big deal, not to mention people I went to school with made the assumption that my stutter was a reflection of my mental state and intelligence. Now I know that a lot here has experienced this very thing, I've read your threads and comments. In my late teens the Internet was just getting started. When I got a PC in the summer of 1996 it opened up a whole new world to me. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that the Internet made talking to the opposite sex much easier. I would like to say it helped with confidence, but the truth is it was only momentary. Meeting women this way has been both a blessing and frankly earlier in life also was a nightmare. In early 1997 I met a woman online (Yahoo! Chat), 18 years old, lived with her three cousins. We chatted online and on the phone until we met in person summer of 1999. When we met something just wasn't right. She looked way older than said she was. I casually asked to see her drivers license because "I had never seen a license from that state before". She brushed me off, I can't remember what the excuse was. The next day when we met again she cheerfully said, "Oh you wanted to see my drivers license?" and handed it to me. Birth year of 1979, that satisfied me and eased my concerns. Fast forward a year, we decided she would move to where I was and we would get an apartment together. Things were fine until three weeks later. It came out that she was not 1 year my senior, but rather 28 years my senior. She did not live with her three cousins, but rather two sons and a husband! In fact, they thought something terrible had happened to her. She packed her stuff and left without telling anyone back home. I can only imagine the horror her family must have felt for those three long weeks. I know that any SANE person would have told her to get out of their life, along with some other choice words. Go home, go back to your husband and family. Not only did she catfish me, but she hurt a lot of other people in the process. In the end I forgave her and stayed with her for many years after. That's insane, right? The point of laying out such a dramatic (traumatic?) part of my life story is to give a real world example of what low self esteem and no confidence as the result of being a person who stutters can do if you allow it. I felt like that is what I deserved, and I couldn't do any better. I had to accept being in this relationship because I wouldn't get another chance to be with someone. Oh how wrong I was. I wasted a big chunk of my life with this woman who was a predator for damn near 20 years because I thought I was broken. I'm a stuttering mess, how could anyone else want me or love me? It's awful what you will settle for in life when your self worth and confidence is rock bottom. I can only hope that the young people who stutter can be strong enough not to just settle, you have to learn to love yourself and know that you're just as good as the next person. Stuttering does not lessen your value as a person. You don't have to settle for less in life, especially relationships.