Nobody in my family stutters. I was the first. Unfortunately, two of my three kids also stutter, although it's *way* less severe than mine is. I'm 46, and I've stuttered since I started talking. No anxiety in my life until well after I started talking, when my parents got divorced, but even then, it was a really \*good\* divorce. They never fought in front of us, it was always amiable. So... I have no idea why I stutter. It's just a mental thing. Certainly, anxiety plays a huge role in the severity of stuttering. All up through highschool and most of college, I was very anxious about speaking and it made my stutter way worse. In my late 20s and early 30s, I began to relax a lot, and not get so anxious about speaking, and so my speech got more fluent. It's still quite obvious, but I can actually have a conversation with people. I can make phone calls. I've even readout loud in front of an auditorium of like 300 people. I still stutter, I am still a little anxious and don't love it. But I can do it. I'll never be one of those people who "doesn't stutter anymore". Nope. The pizza place will always know it's me when I call in my order.... but I'm *able to call in my order*.