Hi, as a 43m. I can relate to a lot of his behaviors and sympathize with your situation. There are times when my stuttering is so severe that I have to rely on my wife for a lot of the interaction. I will refuse to order food for my kids at the mcdonalds drive through. Times like that will add to pressure to our relationship. I make it a point at times to work through my speech and prompt her for help when it is just to much for me. The best advice my wife told me was to not care what other people might think. People will wait its there job. She would get me into small social situations when i was forced to work through it. It did help with my confidence. I believe fear is my biggest blocker when it comes to my speech. fear of being judged, laughed at. But at the end of the day, I understand that i cannot bring my wife with me everywhere. Anything you can do to get him interacting with close friends or doing small things to build up that confidence will definitely help. I hope this helps.