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Looking for helpful tips Let me start off by saying that i am a seasoned stutterer. I am 34 and i have had this thing since i could talk. When i was younger, it never registered to me that having difficulties with one's own speech wasn't "normal". The families and communities i was surrounded by never made me question that i was any different. I think the hope was that i would eventually grow out of my speech impediment. When i was around 9 my parents decided to give speech therapy a try. For a while i found it helpful, i learned new ways to relax and work through my words, or my personal favorite, i learned how to use synonyms like a rolodex. I quickly found i could use another word to replace the one that i couldn't produce. This worked great, I would just have to plan ahead while having a conversation with someone. I would have to focus really hard on context clues or how that person is moving to figure out where the conversation is going. My real troubles come when i have to speak a sentence just as it is, etc. instructions or measurements or reading a book. Really anything that i can't change or it will miss up what needs to be done. The biggest flaw is my name, i have extreme difficulties saying my own name. I stutter almost every single time i have to say it (normally a block). i wanted to change it when i was 18 but i love my name and I feel like doing that would be a band aid to the problem and not an answer (like what i did with the synonyms). So at 34, i am rittled with anxiety, as i have read from a lot of people on here. I just want to know what's your most helpful tip? I am pondering the idea of taking anti-anxiety medication to see if that might help, i work myself up into these nearly paralyzing emotions of fear and feeling that i am dumb for not being able to do what most humans would consider natural. (i apologize for the long post, but i stumbled on here and its crazy how similar most of our stories are.) Not looking for perfection, just progress