Yes, According to [Sheehan](https://ahn.mnsu.edu/services-and-centers/center-for-communication-sciences-and-disorders/services/stuttering/professional-education/the-comdis-field/remembering-the-contributions-of-those-who-have-passed-on/joseph-sheehan/excerpts-from-the-writings-of-joseph-sheehan/): >"The **conflict** in stuttering is not simply between speaking versus inhibiting expected stuttering. In the double approach-avoidance conflict situation, there is both a **conflict** between speaking and not speaking and between being silent or not being silent. The avoidance does not come primarily from the **fear** of stuttering as such but from the **competition** between the alternative possibilities of speech and silence, with the stuttering a resultant of this **conflict**. Speaking holds the promise of communication but the threat of stuttering; silence eliminates temporarily the threat involved in speaking, but at a cost of abandonment of communication and consequent frustration. Many stutterers show a **fear of silence**, and filibuster furiously in their speech to keep any pause from becoming dangerously long. Since most stuttering occurs initially, silence plus initiation of speech becomes a **conditioned** cue for the painful experiences of anxiety and stuttering."