i relate so much. i began stuttering mildly when i was 6, but i was oblivious to it until i reached the age of 11 and i was trying to read out lines in a school play. i experienced my first ‘speech blockage’ and i was physically unable to speak. i would describe this as a ‘situational stutter’. ever since this happened, i began to feel symptoms of anxiety in social situations, and i went from being the class clown to the child who never spoke. my stammer went from being situational to everyday. it did seem to me that it was my stammer that caused my social anxiety - as i only began to feel serious symptoms of anxiety after my stammer became more prominent. later i realised that my stammer worsened when my mum and dad began arguing heavily at home, before eventually splitting up. my dad stammers too so there is a genetic component to my stammer, but my stammer only became more severe when my mental state was poor. after years of suffering with anxiety, it seems more and more that my stammer has become a part of my natural speech pattern. however, there are still instances where i won’t stammer around people i’m very comfortable with. all in all, i think it is possible to overcome a stutter which is attached strongly to anxiety, or at least drastically reduce its prominence in one’s life. i use breathing techniques (breathing from the diaphragm) and speak slowly in an attempt to increase my fluency. i would recommend that you practice these techniques when you’re talking to people who you feel understand you and see if your stutter becomes less prominent. oftentimes, it’s the anxiety we associate with speech, often caused by negative past experiences, that worsen our stammers and make us feel that they define us. kamran