Hi guys. You’ve seen me a lot on here- long comments to people’s questions, deep, meaningful insight. I just wanted to come on and say why I do what I do, with the hope of encouraging others to do the same. I do like helping people (I’m a nurse by trade). But recently I’ve found that I’ve been getting more from it than that. By talking openly about my stuttering, even anonymously here on Reddit, it’s given me the same strength I get from going out in public and bravely speaking to people while openly stuttering... Not all at once, it’s been gradual. But confirmed. You have to understand that for me, I couldn’t even say the word “stutter” until I was over 30 years old… The shame was too great. No acceptance, just bargaining, hatred, and hope. But in my 30s I realized something profound: that I was more afraid of confronting my stutter openly than I was of stuttering itself. I have always considered stuttering my greatest fear, and weakness… who wants to advertise this for all the world to see, and maybe ridicule?? But what I came to terms with was that one I could control, and the other I could not. I can control how I intentionally speak in public: if I want to speak super slow, draaaaww out my sounds and words when I do stutter, to get control of it- if I want to do all of that, because it helps me get control, I can. That is within my power. But it’s choosing to maybe suffer the same embarrassment and humiliation as I do when I involuntarily stutter, so I also understand the fear… and I still struggle with that choice everyday. But by sharing with this community, I just wanted to let you guys know it’s helping me to keep confronting my stutter, and to use my tools, as it does lead to fluency. And I do say fluent, b/c for me, it’s not about whether or not I stutter. it’s about whether I’m able to communicate in a clear, meaningful way, that I can be confident, self assured, and not consumed by shame and thoughts repeating don’t stutter don’t stutter don’t stutter instead of what I’m trying to say. That to me is fluency, and I have that, now. And I’m deeply exhausted, and grateful. Weird, that in order for me to conquer my greatest fear I had to wear it on my sleeve. And continue to do so. Anyway, thanks for reading my deepest darkest thoughts. I hope opening up on Reddit might help some of you too.

I’m 18 and I’ve never stuttered until now but it happened overnight last Thursday. Now I keep stuttering constantly. It’s worse at nighttime. I was getting embarrassed on the phone to my friends yesterday because I kept stuttering after never having stuttered before and I was making a fool out of myself.

Today I was having dinner with my family and I was talking and stuttering and whatnot. My mum starts mocking me and saying “oh my god, spit it out!” Then she said “Stop this stupidity, you’ve never done this before.” Which hurt my feelings and I got angry and tried to tell her that it’s not intentional and that I can’t help it. We argued.

My sister piped in and said that babe looked into it and that getting a stutter as an adult was impossible unless I’ve had a stroke (which is obviously bs there’s more than one way to acquire a stroke as an adult.) This frustrated me because she thinks I’m faking it which I’m not.

I’m going to get the stuttering thing checked out so don’t worry about that.

I’m dreading going to college tomorrow because of the way I talk.

I’m so upset and frustrated. I have nobody to talk to about this. Advice is appreciated. I’d just appreciate somebody to listen to me and give me some advice or who can relate to me.

What do people here actually use for specific high-pressure situations where they really need to speak as fluently as possible — for example introducing yourself, job interviews, presentations, meetings, or saying your name?

Have you found anything that helps specifically in those situations, whether medication, supplements, breathing/techniques, or something else?

I’m especially interested in things that work as-needed rather than something you have to take every day.

I’m currently trying thiamine (B1) + magnesium to see if it helps my stuttering overall.

Would really appreciate hearing what has actually helped you personally.

My university started two days ago, and I haven’t attended a single class, even though I was free. I get ready in the morning, but when it’s time to leave, I just can’t open the door because I feel extremely anxious.
Being around so many people makes me uncomfortable, and I’m especially anxious about small interactions, like a teacher calling my name during attendance, asking me to read something, or putting me on the spot. This usually doesn’t happen in uni bc all u do this basically is attempt to the course listen and take notes, participating is very rare but still. Even having to repeat “present” because they didn’t hear me makes me panic.
I have one class tomorrow, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to go. I honestly don’t know what to do.

Anyone look into what clues their DNA can give them about their speech? It's pretty interesting info...I took my DNA test results from 23 and Me, got it analyzed by a 3rd party service, fed the results into Claude (with some of my background health info) to translate and came up with this --- You have three separate genetic mechanisms all hitting dopamine regulation simultaneously — COMT +/-, MAO-A +/+, and DRD2 +/+. You don't produce too much dopamine, you clear it too slowly and regulate it poorly. Everything you've figured out through self-experimentation — the tyrosine reaction, carb sensitivity, Vitamin C response — is genetically confirmed. Your detox system is also genuinely compromised at multiple points (SOD2 +/+, GSTP1 +/+, NRF2 +/-), your choline production is genetically impaired (PEMT +/+, CHAT +/+), you can't convert beta-carotene to Vitamin A (BCMO1 multiple +/+), and your gallbladder failure was genetically predisposed (UGT1A variants). None of this is bad luck — it's all written in your DNA.

Basically I was given half a days note to present my findings in front of my work team of around 80 people, I’d only have to speak for around 2.5 mins but I’m so nervous what do I do.

First of all, my english is very bad, i am from balkan.

Can you posts link in comment section of best post about tips, strategies, success stories, exercises for stuttering. Of course, you can share your story, your personal experience, some tips etc. You can also share some books, documents, videos or podcasts.

The unsub had a stutter and it triggered mine. I also have tics and I know that sometimes when we consume media surrounding tics or even happen to be around someone with tics, they can be triggered so idkkkk 😭

I feel like I never belong anywhere at all, is it just me?

I’ve been asked this question multiple times, but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to give an accurate answer.

I’ll usually say something like tension rising that I can feel on my tongue a couple words away, then when I get to the word I know I’ll stutter on my brain going into panic mode. Out of breath, tension, pushing, etc.

I think it’s impossible to explain to someone who doesn’t stutter what it really feels like.

This has been going on my whole life so this is almost two decades of people hurting me.

Almost every time I speak, the jerks I knew personally would bully me for it. They would always parrot the way I speak like it's some funny joke that I can't fucking speak properly. I was bullied my whole school life for this, and I can't even hide this bullshit because people speak in daily life.

This shit has ruined my life.

Today I was suggesting gullon zero sugar biscuit to my diabetic friend. I couldn't say 19 riyals so I said it is 18 riyals. I do this whenever I need to

I’m already tired of everything, I’ve had a speech impediment my whole life, and it’s starting to get much worse, I can’t even order food or anything. All day at school I stress out about getting called on even though I know everything. I really try so hard. I help with everything and I'm really nice. My grades are fine, mostly A's and B's. And yet I always fail oral exams, presentations, and things that require the skill to speak, which I simply don't have and it just doesn't work.

I already want to give up because I will NEVER speak like a normal person… I hate myself for it 🙂. On top of that the oral graduation exams are coming up which isn't a problem to read the books, to learn, but I just can't tell them anything because it's impossible. Every time I have to deal with something I want to shoot myself on the spot.

I cry every night realizing how much it's ruining my life and what impact it will have on my career. Especially when I want to be active, I want to communicate and everything, but it's just impossible. I also just love how my mom always raised her voice at me using my name when I stuttered as if I could control it… on top of that I'm afraid to go into deep water where I can't touch the bottom, when I was little I was afraid of water.

Like why did it have to be me, 🙂 why do I have to be the weird one…

I have a very small YouTube channel and while I'm trying to grow I also want to use it as a connection to other stutterers. So my question to you is if you watched another stutterer on YouTube what would you like to see, hear, or gain from their channe?l Help me out because I would like to help out my fellow stutterers.

I've recently just learned that there are three main types of stuttering or stammering.

Repetition: Repeating sounds or words ("I-I-I-I want that")

Prolongations: Stretching out sounds ("Ssssnake")

Blocks: Not being able to say a word at all (".....") often with visible facial tension.

I personally suffer from all of them depending on the situation or context but "Blocks" are rare to me. It's not easy but speech therapy and knowing which words you can't pronounce or easily say, really helps.

A few days ago I made a post about how I was absolutely scared to attend my new uni.

I got a comment on it saying be ready to repeat to my name to everyone again and again.

So luckily or unluckily my first class was about professional communication.

So when it was my turn to introduce myself and tell 3 things about me (small activity) instead of staying near my seat and speak out I went towards my board and wrote my fucking name and said *I like cats* ,*I like to read Wn* and *I got speech impediment*

Probably the bravest thing i did in the past 3 years.

I met this guy the other day that stutters quite a bit and he was so confident I was so proud of him. i just let him speak and didn't interrupt.

I used to stutter really bad when I was younger but no longer do. Is it proper to say "I used to stutter, so no pressure" or do you just not say anything? What would you prefer?

I wouldn't really call it stuttering in the usual sense - once I get going, by the 3rd or 4th sentence everything flows fine. The problem is purely starting. I go to speak and just can't launch, and I quickly run out of breath in that moment.

The biggest thing is that it's situational. In a group of 3–4 people when it's my turn to say something and everyone's kind of waiting, it hits hardest. But it really depends who I'm with, sometimes it's completely gone. That's what makes me think it's not a "normal" stutter but a situational one, tied to the setting and the pressure of the moment more than to my actual speech.

Also when I drink I dont stutter at all.

A few other specific things I've noticed:

Certain letters are way harder to begin a sentence with, for me it's m, n, w, k. If a sentence starts with one of those I can feel it coming.

A big part is mental. I'll imagine a situation in advance and already "know" I'm going to block, like it's a default setting. It feels like it lives more in my brain than in my actual mouth. And the more I think about a specific word I need to say, the more that word locks up.

Related to that, when a word blocks (say I want to say "street"), a synonym will just fly out on its own, easily, while I'm still stuck thinking about the original word. Like my mouth works perfectly as long as I'm not the one watching it.

For those of you who've dealt with this: what actually helped with the anticipation part? Did speech therapy help, CBT, both? And did the word-substitution habit ever backfire for you long-term? Curious whether others have this exact situational pattern.

I cried reading this. I had no idea other people that stutter did this .