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“Are you okay?” I don’t know that I’m even allowed to have a pet peeve about stuttering because my husband stutters, not me, but the post asking for advice for a coworker who stutters reminded me of something that drives me crazy: people asking my husband “Are you okay?” when he’s having a long block. And usually in a weird, panicky way that just makes the whole situation stressful. I get they are confused about what’s going on, but now he not only has to get out of the block and say what he was trying to say, but he also has to assure this other person that he is indeed fine. If I’m with him I’ll usually just tell the other person he’s fine, he just stutters, so just calm down and let him finish (not always the calm down part, unless they are being really weird about it). But it’s so annoying. I have half-jokingly thought about about getting a sign made that says, “Calm down, he’s fine.”