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Coping Mechanisms? Hello! But of context - I was chatting with my best mate about Nerodivergence and coping mechanisms last night and it got me thinking. Im 31 now, I’ve had a stutter all my life, I also suffer from stress, anxiety and OCD. Lovely combination of stuff. I’ve never really paid it much mind if I’m honest, I’ve just gotten on with it. Life doesnt stop because I’m feeling a little off. But, some recent events in my life have had me start to take my mental health a little more seriously. I went to speech therapy as a kid, and they went through the motions and improved my speech - the general consensus was slow down and think about what you have to say. But it only ever worked when I was actively going to therapy, and when I left everything came back. I absolutely hated having to slow right down just to get my words out, If I could paint you a picture I’d say think of that sloth from zootopia. I had so much to say and I felt like it just took me way too long and people would lose interest. The way it was explained to me as a kid, was that basically: I had so much to say and my brain was able to process what I wanted to say faster than what my speech would allow for. I have no clue how truthful this was at the time but I agree that this is definitely how I see it happening today. Anyways, in this conversation with my mate about coping mechanisms - I asked him if he was aware I had a stutter. He said no, never - and since; I’ve asked a few others and they were all also unaware. So I’ve managed to mask it quite well in the last 20 years or so. Now, for me anyway - for as long as I can remember post therapy, something about the way I spoke suddenly clicked for me. Whilst speaking and thinking words to say, I started to be able to tell what word I was going to stumble on, and so on the fly I would quickly swap out the word I intended to say with something else, or I would steer the conversation in a way that would get me around that “hump”. Its only just dawned on me how mentally taxing this has been for me for the last 20 years. Whilst it’s seems to be an effective method, to overcome my stutter, I come home most days from work exhausted after speaking with people all day. So I suppose, what I’m asking all of you is what do you do to help overcome your stutter?