Interesting. I know people that stutter openly but it does not seems that their stutter diminish. Somehow they are feeding their stuttering on their attempt to accept it. The vicious circle you are talking about. I really don´t know why but I will give it a try: People who are covert stutter try to hide their stutter because they don´t like their stutter. They wish that their where non-stutterers. They hide to avoid the shame but at the same time develop strategies to not to stutter. Most people are on denial of their stuttering because they think it can be improved. Imagine someone cuts your arm tommorrow. You won´t think it will grow back. After having a crappy time, the only thing left is acceptance. To move on. But with stuttering is different. I think deep down almost everyone think or had thought on the past that there is a way around. ¿But what is acceptance? Maybe is just another strategy to "cure" oneself. It´s like our mind saying: If I can accept my stuttering long enough it finally will go away. But is the same problem. Maybe we need real acceptance. To not want it to go away. I don´t know if such thing is possible. First we had to let go the idea that there is a solution. Even further, we have to let got the notion that we have a problem.