Thanks for asking. I began stuttering at about age 4-5. I remember being the “apple of my parents’ eye” before that. I felt adored. At about age 4, my eye muscle turned in and with the stutter, I was no longer the ‘perfect little accessory’. Before that, they presented me as a little genius. I recognized classical music pieces, knew the composers, and recited poetry. They couldn't stop showing me off. They put me on display. It caused anxiety. After I began to stutter, they encouraged me not to speak or to ‘modulate my voice’ because it embarrassed them. I bet I was the only 4 yr old who knew what ‘modulate’ meant. I felt I was no longer of value to them. They never made fun of me then. but their behavior toward me changed. I was no longer perfect. As I grew to be an older child, they treated me worse because I wasn't as thin as they would have liked. I was never obese, but not as thin as they wanted. I was marginalized and emotionally abused because stuttered. School was a nightmare. I was born in 1947 and where I lived there was no school speech therapy at that time. My parents didn't seen speech therapy for me either. Things did not improve as I became older. I believed I'd been ‘given’ to a male family friend because I was imperfect and could be sacrificed. The molestation continued from age 8-12 when I realized I might be raped if this man remained in my life. Because I believed my parents knew and didn't care about me, I confided in a babysitter who told my mother what I couldn’t. I don't know what happened but the molester was never seen again. My parents continued to marginalize me making fun of my being slightly overweight and telling me in my teens that with my multiple handicaps no one would marry me. Yes, I did stutter, but after university, I married a wonderful professional man who loved and accepted me, stutter and all. There’s much more, but suffice it to say; that even in a happy marriage I continued to stutter despite being unconditionally loved and accepted. After a lifetime of unsuccessful therapy, speech and psychological, at 70 I finally found the right therapist to deconstruct my feelings and emotional childhood trauma. Soon I realized I no longer stuttered and became fully fluent at 70! In my case repressed emotional pain caused my dysfluency. I have learned that stuttering can be caused by physical as well as emotional events. It was just a case of my reaction to my particular trauma. Others have endured greater traumas and have not reacted so detrimentally. I hope I explained my situation and answered your question. I'd be happy to correspond further without dumping my sad story of childhood abuse. Good luck with your quest to become fluent. Past traumatic events do contribute to stuttering in many people. It doesn't even have to be ongoing. One incident can be enough. Sue