I went to a clinic when I was in 6th grade and it was a bad experience for me personally. I was in there with kids who were handicapped and seemingly incoherent. We would all sit around in a table and read a super short passage. When I have words in front of me I speak like an audiobook, so the exercise didn't help me out at all. All it did was make me think I was retarded. I felt that I was "looked down" on socially and was associated with being handicapped. It was a horrible feeling. In high school, I realized that I wasn't looked down on socially at all and if anything people appreciated me and my talents and loved me. I got a girlfriend who actually liked me and appreciated me for who I was. What I realized through that process was that I made myself think that I was less than who I was. I made my stutter define who I was and it wasn't till I broke out of my shell that I learned how to speak well. In college it never phased me once that I stuttered, I felt totally free from my "sin" that I had.