Lastly, about "negative emotions"—I prefer the term **conditioned stimulus** because not all triggers are negative emotions. In Pavlov’s dog experiment, the bell alone became a trigger for salivation, even without the presence of food. One example is that when we have stuttered for a long time, we may become satisfied with our "way of speaking" believing that stuttering is completely random. As a result, we might adopt a stuttering identity and image, when in reality, this concept that we rely on could be reinforcing a mechanism that triggers a reflex response. Although, I do think that all stutter triggers (whether they are negative emotions or not) ultimately link back to **a deeper fear of social rejection** (unconditioned stimulus), though many people who stutter may not consciously realize it. Just keep asking yourself WHY?: Why do I trigger a fear-panic response when negatively evaluating feared words, anticipated situations, social pressure, saying our name, stutter pressure, simply wanting to speak with someone, etc? I’d argue that we don’t always consciously notice negative emotions (or other triggers), yet we still stutter. In such cases, I believe our subconscious is still negatively evaluating stimuli, and thus, reacting to a deeply embedded fear of social rejection?! resulting in an automatic reflex response so ingrained that we aren’t even aware of it. Can you resonate with my point of view?