I think it was mostly confidence. I began to really understand social interaction by reading these three books: How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Blueprint, and Book of Five Rings. The first one is very general. The second is more specific and I learned a lot about social value/ the definition of confidence. And the third one is a book on samurai strategy, but it taught me how to DO all of those things. I think what's written above is part of it... Another part is facing your fear. I began doing this thing where ANYTIME I felt I was avoiding stuttering, I did that thing. Think you might stutter when answering a question? Raise your damn hand. Think you might stutter when saying xyz? Say it, damn it. You can not let stuttering control your life. I know this is hard to do, but it is a battle that feels so good to win. And after enough times, I was in Chinese class and we had to go around the room and say a certain phrase, and I had that fear in my stomach. Then I thought, "Wait...This has happened so many fucking times before and I've been fine. Even if I stutter, it's okay." Then the fear went away. I hope this helped. Take care!