I’m 32 years old and I have had a stutter for as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure mine came up from childhood trauma and it’s been a rollercoaster ever since. Some months/years my stutter is manageable and I feel a little more confident and sometimes it’s bad (it’s been kinda bad for the last few years). I have a job where I make okay money but that’s just the path I chose because I let it hold me back, I let it consume me, and I let it define me as a person to the point where I was on the brink of suicide because I couldn’t handle being who I was. I got hooked on drugs because where I felt careless, I felt free but in reality, I was just suppressing my emotions. I was becoming a person who I couldn’t even recognize. I was so hell bent on the term “whatever happens, happens” that I let my physically and mental health go to shit and that’s when I knew I had to change.. I had to feel everything that I’ve been avoiding. I regret it. I regret being so hard on myself just because I wanted to be normal and to be able to freely communicate. I regret the insane amount of time I spent drugged up because I felt sorry for myself. Years later I met my now wife, I still struggled with drugs throughout our relationship but I have been free from hard drugs for a few years now and I quit weed just recently on 4/20 out of all the days lol. She gives me reason to keep moving forward and helping myself become a better version of myself, whatever that may be, I don’t know yet. I quit a few habits that make my stutter worse like caffeine and smoking/vaping. So far it’s too early to tell how that’ll help but the future will tell. So, it may not get better and the sooner you can accept that, the sooner you’ll start moving forward. People are patient with us. They might make funny faces or laugh but they just don’t understand and that’s okay. I learned to laugh along with it, or every time I have a really bad one I try to lighten the mood with a stupid comment. We have gone through so much, and it takes bravery everyday for us to go out into the world and be a part of it. I always wonder if I didn’t have this stutter, who would I be today? Would I be a better, more successful person? Sure, maybe? I don’t know, but I like the person that I am today, and that’s all that matters. I haven’t met many stutterers but the ones I have met, were all very good people. I hope someday it gets better but for now, we just have to accept it for what it is and if people don’t like it, they’re not worth your time. Don’t let it define you.