I could have written your post myself. I'm an outlier on this sub from what I've heard. Not many women are stutterers (I didn't know). Attitude helps a lot. Being simple able to say, no matter how slowly (or write, if you can't say it) "I have a stutter, I'm working on it, please be patient with me". It does so much for your comfort and the other person's. As a child, my stutter was paralyzing. Over many years, it was multiple little things that made my life better, but nothing helped as much as acknowledging the other person's discomfort about my stutter with a smile. Most non-stuttering people just don't know what to say. They know you are embarrassed and they don't know how to help you. If you acknowledge your stutter (obvious though it may be without mentioning it) it removes a LOT of the tension. Most people are not so hardhearted as to refuse a friendship over such a thing. If this was the case I wouldn't have had many friends and multiple relationships. I am pretty wildly neurodivergent and absolutely not everyone's cup of tea: I annoy so many people. Even so, I've made lots of friends as an adult. You may not like to hear it but so much of it is attitude. If you seem super unhappy/ashamed of yourself/self-conscious, people will avoid you simply because of that, unfortunately, if they don't know how to react to your stuttering or your evident discomfort. One of the things I most hated to hear as a child is "learn to laugh at yourself". I was so sad, I cried so much, because of my stutter. How could I laugh! But it is true. Nothing helped me as much as an adult, as being able to tell someone "they, I stutter, just give me a minute to get my words out" with a friendly smile. People are immediately comfortable and so am I. In this manner I've made many friends and kept them for many years to this day. Trust me, it's not hopeless. I say this to the people that have been extra upset in recent posts and will likely downvote this comment, but even so: believe me, it's not hopeless for you. I've been where you are, and I would have taken the posts you call "toxic positivity" the same way you are now, with anger and sadness in my heart and feeling like the cross I bear is not understood even by my fellow stutters. But we do understand. At least I feel I know why you feel the way you do. I have so many deeply painful memories regarding my stutter. But I found immense happiness. So can you, if you are reading this (not OP, I mean people who are really struggling). But you have to stop seeing yourself as a victim. You were dealt a shitty card, yes, but you are alive in this world with more possibilities than you realize. You surely have positive things going for you, even if you think you're not smart or beautiful. Trust me. I was so unhappy. I wish I could have told myself what was coming. Something wonderful may be coming for you too someday if you let it, and your stutter does not have to stop it.