Chasing rhythm in your own breathing is actually part of the problem. Fluent adults speak using feedforward neural networks, while stutterers recurrent feedback loops (which children use while developing speech and language). "Feedforward neural networks pass the data forward from input to output, while recurrent networks have a feedback loop where data can be fed back into the input at some point before it is fed forward again for further processing and final output." A fluent speaker gives a motor command to speak out a sentence of say 5 words. They will finish their sentence before their brain scans for potential errors in their speech (Word-word-word-word-word-scan). A stutterer's brain using recurrent feedback loops will instead go: word-scan-word-scan-word-scan-word-scan-word-scan, or in even more macabre manner break down the words into letters and undergo individual scans for many. As several different neural pathways simultaneously vie for attention through the dopaminergic system (i.e. first word-scan sequence, second word-scan sequence and so on), our brain gets overloaded with information and has no ONE clear path of motor speech execution. Our quest for internal rhythm is what I believe propagates this problem, because as soon as rhythm falls apart, we naturally break down further what should have been left alone in the first place. In our futile attempt to analyze our rhythm, we break it down, fragment it such that the infinitesimally smaller pieces of the whole no longer even resemble the whole or can be used to describe it in any significant manner. I have an inkling of what you're saying though. I just can't put it into words. All of us stutterers have periods in which we're fluent. Why can't any of us return from those and be able to explain them to each other? It's probably because of what I said in the ending sentences of last paragraph. I hit a punching bag working out sometimes. Say I make it my goal to hit the punching bag and retract my hand as soon as I make contact. My hand may be 30-40 cm away from the bag. Using a feedforward system, I intuitively calculate distance, execute my punch and retract it in one movement. The entire movement from start to finish is "predetermined." Using a recurrent neural system, my brain will initiate movement, wait for my glove to make contact with the bag, receive that information either through sensation, vision, or hearing, and ONLY THEN give the command to retract my hand. You can only imagine how faster the first movement would be, and how stuttered the latter.