We have to cut people a wide path. First by accepting that our speech is abnormal. If they divert eye contact early on, it's perfectly normal. Facial expression changes as well. We do have to make up for our verbal shortcoming by polishing everything else we present the world. Sending the message that we do indeed have our shit together. No one knows anything about stuttering so it's natural they think something is mentally wrong with us. We have an arsenal of other non verbal cues to send to the world that would dispel this notion. We do not have the luxury of leaving the house with unkept hair and baggy sweatpants. The physical appearance must be top notch. I'm not talking about the face you're born with, but the physical shape you are in, the clothes you wear, the effort you put into hair and makeup. These are all well within our control, even though the speech is not. It's easy for all these things to fall by the wayside because we're all a little depressed because of our stutter, but it's our best chance of telling the word that our speech disorder only extends to speech, and not our thinking. I've pushed hard enough to make a family, I've got a wife and three children. If you max out all other aspects of your life, the speech will carry much less weight with the people you meet. There's no sense in even considering giving up until you've lived for years with all of these conditions met. And not as a teenager or early 20 something. The dating scene changes drastically as you get older. People are much more willing to look deeper. Feel free to reach out if you want anymore details. I come to this subreddit to try and give inspiration to younger stutterers. I'm proof that you can live an otherwise normal life, and I'd consider my stutter pretty severe.