My experience with antianxiety meds is that they generally do numb me out to an extent and take some of the wildness out of life. Fluvoxamine has worked the best for me and I've taken it for a long time, but as I discovered recently during a local shortage, going off it can be fairly hectic. My anxiety went up almost immediately and my dreaming went to another level. This could have been caused by how long I've been taking it, so more of a withdrawal effect. My social functioning and speech got worse during this period (I was off it just a few days I should add). So that's just me. It's a difficult question to decide on but an extremely valid one I think. If it's just your speech that is making you anxious, then is it better long-term to try and sort that out than short-term to address the anxiety with possible long-term downsides (or not, who knows?)? Btw, I'm keen to try ecopipam, if it ever becomes available for stuttering.