I can acknowledge that I probably communicate a sense of frustration at times when I'm struggling to get my words out. So yes, when family or whomever else will avoid starting a conversation, although its misguided, yes its probably to spare me discomfort and maybe discomfort for themselves as well. I stutter more with family than anyone else, by far. The way I interpret that, its almost like, mentally, I don't try as hard with them to speak fluently. Its like the one group of people who, when I'm with them, I can just not worry about stuttering because they've heard me stutter my whole life. But its a paradox because when I do stutter around them I do get disappointed with myself. The truth is I haven't taken the proper time in my life to address my stutter, on a practical level or emotional level. Most of my life I just tried to ignore it and not talk about it. I'm 31 now and I went to speech therapy for the first time last year. I've been working on being completely comfortable with the fact that I stutter. My family has almost never talked to me about my stutter. Looking back I'm actually surprised my parents didn't look at getting speech therapy for me when I was younger. There are definitely emotional aspects as to why I stutter more when I'm with them. It isnt just me not trying to speak as fluently when I'm with them. Part of it may also be that I choose my words more carefully when speaking with them, and my experience is, when I think about what I'm about to say, I'm far more likely to stutter than if I just let the words flow freely as I'm thinking.