I feel that too. I am currently 53 and I passed the point where I have any hope it is going to get any better. In my time, jobs were next to impossible, and I realized the harder I tried to be fluent, the more I stuttered. I would say I am a severe stutterer, and it has only gotten worse. I avoid situations where talking is required of me, social situations where ambient noise would make it worse for me. Let me say… you cannot let it run your life. Party of that means accepting that you will always meet people that won’t understand what you are going through. There will always be people who assume you’re stupid, or stressed out, who will laugh at you thinking you are trying to be funny. Those are the people you will need to develop a thick skin for, mainly because there are billions and billions who will react like that. The rest of the world, there are people out there who will see you for who you are, whether it’s good, or shy, or complicated, those are the good people in the world. Surround yourself with people like that. I am at the point in my life where I just don’t care how people react to me. If I need to say something, (normally it is in person), I MAKE THEM SIT THERE AND FORCE THEM TO LISTEN TO ME INTIL I AM DONE TALKING. Best advice, start growing a thick skin, accept what and who you are, and find a way to keep going forward. I was your age when I met my first stuttered, there was no internet, no support groups, no one to talk to other than the school counselor. My entire family learned around me, around my struggles how to handle stuttering. Years later, my sister had a son who stutterers. Guess what, he was born into an entire family who knew how to handle it, and he grew up stuttering and knowing he wasn’t alone in the world. Sorry I’m ranting here, but it is one good thing coming out of the lgbt movement, it is softening the public and encouraging them to accept people unlike themselves. If someone they meet is different, they’re okay with that. Last, people are going to remember you long after they have forgotten everyone else. There is no shame in being unique. The real trick is finding a way to embrace it. Is it easy? No, but we keep on anyway.