Not hiding it is a big step! It takes a lot of the fear out of speaking, and the fear tends to make the blocks worse. One of my things is that I'm still carrying a lot of internal shame about my disflunecy and still try to act like I'm not a person who stutters. Working to accept myself is a feat, but it can be done because you are proof! I've been lurking on this sub for quite a while and only got the courage to post last night, ha. I would like to think of myself as part of a community of people with common issues rather than this single, detached person dealing with this issue alone. It blew my mind when I found out that disflunecy isn't a main area of study or even the main focus of speech therapy. And even when it is, the goal most times is absolute fluency rather than learning how to accept and work with the disflunecy.