I keep getting these notifications from /r/Stutter and can't help myself but give some advice. I just struggled for so long and lived with so much self-hate. You can read my other comments for my full story. Some people may argue the shit I say is misinformation, but I lived it. Like the guy who said anxiety has been proven to be unrelated to a stutter may have some studies I'd be interested in seeing... However, everyone in my family has anxiety problems with some also diagnosed OCD... 3 people also had stuttering problems with me included in that. One is now a lecturing college professor who never stutters, another is distant and IDK how often they stutter but it never happens around me anymore, and I personally haven't had a stutter for a long time in any situation. If social anxiety had nothing to do with it, why wouldn't your mind keep stuttering when you're out of social situations? OCD is something I experience as well, not as bad as my brother though. When I practice a new song It's extremely hard for me to roll on past a mistake, and I'll often repeat the whole song again and again until it's exactly how I wanted it to sound... A stutter in its own right, and a terrible way to practice music... Still working on that one. Lol. I'm going to reiterate the small seed I planted in my mind which is similar to what you realized -- Consider why you never stutter talking to animals. Then ask yourself why everyone you stutter with is not just another animal. Once you start to frame everyone as an animal where nothing you say is as serious as you imagined before, the importance of having absolutely perfect diction just dissolves out of your mind. Your sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight, or freeze) will still fire for a while out of habit everytime you need to speak, and this will cause you to still stutter... luckily you're just talking to some other silly animals trying figure out life the same way you are. Don't worry about it or tell yourself you messed up, this will only ingrain into your sympathetic nervous system that this is a real danger and problem it needs to keep firing for to keep you safe. Let it go, move on and keep stuttering in front of these silly animals. If they alienate you or poke fun, remember it's not anyone's fault -- just two animals doing their best to figure out the world. There will be more potential friends who simply don't care as well, and these are usually better friends anyway. Essentially, stop worrying or caring about stuttering and try to feel as relaxed as you do talking to yourself. Easier said than done, I know... But the more you stutter in front of people and nothing serious actually happens, the more relaxed you will become and the more your mouth will move freely. ***I reinforced this with mindfulness meditation everyday, reframing important scary people I talked to as silly animals and reminding myself there is no real physiological difference between talking out loud in my room and talking in a room full of people... It's all how I mentally perceive who's listening.*** Edit: One trick I used starting out was just not looking people in the eyes, while this is considered disrespectful/shy and bad form for job interviews... I didn't really care because they were just silly animals and it helped me feel like I was just talking to myself. Lol. If you ever feel too down in the dumps about it, go watch The King's Speech. Lol. I can't watch that movie without crying through the whole thing and feeling inspired to keep going.