I've always had a stutter, but it was bad when I was a kid; "takes me a long time to pronounce my name" kind of bad. It got way better from ages 9-18, to the point where my friends were surprised to find out that I stuttered in high school. I wasn't prepared for college, bit off way more than I could chew, and my stutter came back worse than it had been since elementary school. Stuttering continued for most of my 20s IMO due in no small part to high stress jobs. About 7 years ago I got out of retail and into a desk job and the stuttering has again faded away. I still occasionally repeat syllables in a word once or twice, especially on the phone, but it's as mild as it's ever been. I think the reduced stress helped my stutter lot, but beyond that I think getting older helped. I have theories as far as why I feel getting older in of itself helped me, but this reply is too long as is. My whole long labored point is that you shouldn't lose hope because there is hope. Maybe you hit a certain age or milestone and truly feel like you're a grown up and that helps a lot (buying a house helped me). Maybe you get yourself out of debt and find that your speech is that much better without that burden hanging over your head. Maybe you talk to a speech therapist who really understands your problem, you start believing that your speech can get better, you put a lot of effort into it, and in the end even though you're still a stutterer it's so much better than it was before. I can only speak to my life experiences, and your stutter may be a lot different than mine, but I can assure you that there is always hope. I sincerely wish you the best and implore you to never lose hope.