I feel your pain there. People are full of useless, even harmful advice…. Do I just talk less and less. I just tried calling a University in the area that a has a speech pathology program but I had to leave a voicemail. Great. I suppose that ought to really impress them since we all know how great it is to talk on the phone… Last week I went to a meeting for a charity I volunteer at and serve on the board of directors. I was asked a detailed question and was attempting to stutter through my answer. When I hit a block, another guy just jumped in, cut me off and started talking. I clearly wasn’t finished. I’m proud of myself for speaking up and stating that I was not finished talking yet and then proceeded to complete my answer to the question. To his credit, he backed off immediately and didn’t appear bothered that I had stopped him. Still, I felt overall that my ability to be heard and respected and to influence or inform people has been significantly impaired by my new fluency disorder. It has been only a brief time since I experienced smother onset of stuttering so I know how it used to be when I spoke and how differently people treat me. The interesting thing is that the charity I volunteer at is a walk-in center for people with mental health and substance use disorders. As you might anticipate, many of them are poor, even unhoused and virtually all of them have experienced discrimination and mistreatment and are often treated as invisible by society. I teach art therapy classes and provide peer support. Wouldn’t you know, when I stutter around them, they are the kindest, most patient group I’ve encountered. They wait for me to get through my attempts to talk. If I happen to get upset or frustrated and stop or apologize they don’t give advice, they say “it’s ok” “you’re fine” ”keep going” and they just listen until I’m finished. I find that I actually stutter less among them than, say, the board of directors. Bless them. It’s given me a lot more empathy for them in return.