Same thing. I'm from Italy [M 23], and i too have a mild stutter, that i always hide with quick word swaps, pauses and accurately placed "uhms". When you stutter for 16 years you start to come up with ways to cope with it. I became so good at it that people don't even realize i stutter, but i do seem like the shy kind of guy. Even if others can't tell i stutter, I DO, and thats more than enough to bother me. I've always been hiding it, which means i never really accepted myself as a stutterer, and that is a huge burden to carry. The need to always look "normal" to others is psycologically exausting, and an overall self-destructive activity, but it's a normal thing to do for me, since i did it for so long. It's like wearing a mask, but i'm used to it, in my mind it's a better option than being labeled as a person who stutters. The only guys who "know" are really close friends and past classmates (even though idk if they think i stutter, or if they think i have anxiety issues or some other kind of speech impediment, i never asked them). Only recently i really began to try not to think about my stutter, to put myself in situations i normally wouldn't and if i happen to stutter, try not to think too much about it. That's the only way to gain confidence, if you keep running away from those situations it's only gonna get worse. I'm mainly working on my anxiety to boost my confidence a bit (always been a solitary guy), but i'll have to start my coming out as a stutteter sooner or later. Accepting it is the only way to overcome all the bad experience we had in the past, that are the core of our fear of stuttering as a whole. I want to change also because my uni final exam is later this year, and i want to deal with as best as i can. I'll have to discuss my thesis with a microphone to an audience; the idea absolutely terrifies me, but i'm working on it.