Comment #2: > >*"The mind knows when we will stutter because it evaluates what's coming next, what will hinder it, and if and by how much it's enough to stop us.  So that is why I can also feel when I have gone fluent, because the evaluation still happens and it knows nothing will impede me in the following moments. "* yes indeed, here in [this ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/1jww8d8/when_did_u_first_start_stuttering_like_was_it/)post I talked about that all humans have an **approach-avoidance conflict** (mechanism) (for example, a baby starts crying when the parent walks away - due to fear of social rejection. He stops crying once the parent returns). This is an innate, hard-wired mechanism in all humans, it's not "learned". So we do not want to get rid of this mechanism or reduce it (which is what speech therapies often misunderstand resulting in inappropriate strategies in my opinion), rather we simply want to fine-tune it to make it more adaptive and work in our favor. At least that's my take on it. **Conditioning:** The shaping and **conditioning** of this malfunctioned approach-avoidance conflict (**mechanism**) occurs, if our subconscious learns to anticipate the situations in which this **mechanism** will malfunction (process of forward modeling). This aligns with what you said in your comment that you know when you will start stuttering even before you speak, wouldn't you say? Our subconscious associates stimuli (*especially words or situations*) with past experiences and distorted beliefs and cognitive biases (resulting in "imagined errors" for speech execution to proceed). However, the way I see it. it's not anticipating those **errors** (such as, stuttering anticipation) that triggers the approach-avoidance conflict. Because, remember, we do not always stutter if we anticipate stuttering for example, sometimes it results in stuttering but other times not, right? Rather, it's when we self-impose (i.e., need or expect) to speak better than our automatic processes - by replacing automatic processes with conscious effort - this is when the approach-avoidance conflict triggers and result in totally unnecessary stuttering. Your thoughts? What’s really interesting is that this approach-avoidance conflict can happen even when we *don’t* consciously feel any anticipation. For instance, many stutterers can say their name fluently when we’re alone—but suddenly we stutter in front of someone else, even someone we deeply trust like a parent. The word is the same, yet our fluency changes. **What has changed** between speaking alone and speaking with a comfortable parent? The situation. Our subconscious evaluates the context, and suddenly triggers the approach-avoidance conflict,—even if we don’t notice it ourselves "consciously"