You do not have to exclude yourself when your friends get it out. You choose to exclude yourself when your friends get it out. Source: I've done the same thing, so I can't judge. However, I was playing with a group of 10 friends or so this last Christmas. It was getting closer to me and my heart was racing - like the worst case of 'go around the room and...' ever! It was my turn to read, and one of the cards had the word 'dad' in it. T's, D's, and B's are my most difficult sounds. I blocked HARD on 'dad', to the point that everyone noticed. I finally just said, "Ha sorry, it's not coming out. I stutter sometimes." and the general responses were somewhere between 'That's cool' and 'Nobody cares, just read our cards however you want.' You will feel disheartened and down 100% of the time you exclude yourself from the game. Make yourself do it once and you'll be glad you did. You might get a jerk that says something, but most people won't.