I’m so glad to have stumbled across your comment— I’ve been stuttering A LOT lately (mostly blocking with minimal repetition), like to the point I feel like I need to mention I have a stutter, which I haven’t had to do in quite a while. I have issues with inflammation / autoimmune and I’ve noticed over the years that when I have flares that I seem to stutter more often. — I’ve been working thru a flare for the last couple of years but this last month my stuttering frequency just spiked. I really think a trigger may be poor sleep or missing something nutritionally. — I remember last time it got noticeably bad, I was very physically uncomfortable and getting over a severe intestinal infection, and found out I was very low on magnesium and ferritin. Once those were back to normal, I was feeling better, my sleep improved, and the stutter almost completely vanished. I’m pretty skilled at synonyms / changing up a phrase when it’s bad, but sometimes I just have to try to force my way thru it bc the blocked word bc it’s the one that needs to come out, no matter how awful the delivery is for me. But I’ve noticed when I’m relaxed and feel good physically (no physical stressors), it happens almost never or very low frequency. Sometimes it helps to find a connector sound that flows into the sound I know is going to be blocked— like, “little” the “li” sound gets me sometimes and it just won’t come out, but if I say “the little” I’ll be able to say it without issue. Another thing is I used to have this single tiny ear piece that played back what I was saying real time into my own ear and for some reason that helped me talk clearly by simultaneously listening to myself — I learned this technique in speech when I was in elementary school but with one of those small tape recorders. I also use a highlighter with a silent cap as fidget device, I twist the lid while I’m talking to people— apparently using different areas of your brain at the same time (motor function+talking, listening+talking) can help minimize the stutter. Anyway, just wanted to chime in and say I’m similar! It always feels good to know you’re not the only one in the world… even if you’re seemingly the only one at your entire company. ✌️