Being open does help. Only a couple of my closer friends know that I stutter and it relieves a lot of pressure. I'm able to talk to them much more fluently and some even question if I do actually stutter or either remark it's very minimal. I feel that when I talk to people who are unaware and are likely to be puzzled over the fact that someone can actually have a stuttering problem, then I will being to stutter more. I guess if people start to treat you funny or you believe there's something up, you could break the tension by saying that you "stutter a bit". I never tried to over dramatise it when I told two of my friends. It's a life changing issue, it really is, but I didn't make that out to them. If you treat it like it's a big issue they'll treat it like one too. Tell people in a way that you don't really care about it and they will appreciate it.