Re “you can’t escape the anxious feelings that come your way when you start stuttering” - I mean, actually, I can, to a large degree. It’s taken a while, but eventually I have realized people generally don’t care if i stutter. They *do* care if i try to mask my stutter and fail, because then they don’t even know I have a stutter and are legitimately confused and weirded out. But an obvious stutter, it’s more annoying for me at this point. Most people are too preoccupied thinking about themselves and what they have to say to care too much about my stutter I find anyway. I will say that social anxiety is another situation. Getting anxious around unfamiliar people in particular is tougher for me. An example is someone I knew in college who had a pronounced stutter but was very outspoken and extroverted. He had a more pronounced stutter than I did, but people listened fo him more because I was more anxious and reticent to speak, and had more masking techniques I used. Confidence, body language, etc matter a ton more in my experience to how people respond to you.