I'm starting to realize it's much deeper than just lack of confidence and belief in what I'm saying, at least for me. That's just a symptom of sorts. Ultimately, at what seems to be the center, is immense fear of vulnerability of anything that pushes me outside of my comfort zone. It's *freezing cold* out there, and I don't have thick enough skin. Blocking is just a defense mechanism to keep me from stepping out there, catching frostbite, and dying a slow, painful death. That's what my brain is convinced of, anyway. I've taken a couple steps out there before and it was terribly uncomfortable, so I never built up a tolerance (thicker skin). I learned to just stay inside, where it's warm. I had a pretty damned traumatic and very early life event that derailed me, and I never really got back on track. From as early as I can remember I have continually devised/learned and deployed defense mechanisms to protect myself from being hurt by my environment, which have, over time, continually reinforced my fear of it — because the only way to break through it, is to...well, break through it. It's a vicious cycle as long as you let it drive you. For most of my life I have used these defense mechanisms/strategies to avoid pain (of failure, incl. the social variety), which just keeps adding onion-like layers of "protection" (in reality: fear). I've made myself a metaphorical [bubble suit](http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/10/42/73/2240234/7/920x920.jpg), and just like in the film, it ironically sabotages my life, instead of allowing me to grow and blossom into my potential. As I've gotten older and more and more functional I've naturally peeled some of these layers back, but I still have a long way to go. I echo someone else's recommendation in this thread for the book "Redefining Stuttering: What the struggle to speak is really about". I'm reading it now and it's really illuminating for me, so I bet you'd get something from it too, if you haven't read it already. There's a short essay by the same guy that I came across last year which really hit home: http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Infostuttering/Harrison/block.html Knowledge is power...it really has given me some hope to finally gain some understanding into what's wrong with my brain. I wish I had figured some of this stuff out years ago, but better late than never, right?