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Why I Don't Advertise Anymore I've had a significant stutter for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid in speech therapy, my speech therapist always told me to "advertise" that I have a stutter. Some sessions, I would spend the entire hour walking around best buy, pretending to be interested in buying DVD players or TVs in order to get into the practice of explaining my stutter to salespeople. Since then, every time I met a new person, I always break out of a block to say, "oh, by the way, I have a stutter." For whatever reason, this is always easier to say than anything else, but what are you going to do. This method worked ok for me, and I can see why my speech therapist got me into the practice of advertising. It can certainly act as an ice breaker and it can be invaluable for people who are anxious about speaking. However, there has always been one aspect of advertising that bothered me. I've noticed that when I say "by the way, I have a stutter", what people are hearing is actually closer to, "I'm sorry, I have a stutter."   This doesn't seem like a huge distinction at first, but over the years I've noticed that there is a shift in my interactions with people when I am smashing through blocks that isn't present on the rare occasions that I am fluent enough to get through introductions without letting on that I have a speech impediment. When I say "by the way, I have a stutter", the answer is always, "Don't worry about it!" or, "Don't be sorry!". The thing is, I didn't say "sorry, I have a stutter." I wasn't apologizing for having a speech impediment. I wasn't begging for a stranger's forgiveness in the first moment I meet them. I was trying to make the person feel more comfortable around me. This dynamic has had a profound effect on who I am as a person. I always enter conversations with new people feeling like I'm groveling. It creates this weird power balance between me and the person I'm talking to, where I somehow always end up feeling apologetic towards them. I'm sick of this feeling. You feeling comfortable with my stutter is not my responsibility. I'll smash through my blocks, and ensure that I am heard. That's me holding up my end of the social contract inherent in every conversation. In return, I expect strangers to display simple courtesy. Don't laugh at me, don't walk away, and, holy fuck, don't touch me! If I meet any kind of reaction to my stutter, I'll keep it brief. I'll say, "I have a speech impediment." in a curt manner. It's polite and it gets the point across, but it's not apologetic. By clarifying after I get a reaction, and not before, I'm subtly altering people's first impression of me away from the one of an apologetic invalid, and gaining a little bit of agency.   Any thoughts? I realize that much of what I'm talking about is in my head, but I'm wondering, does that really matter? It's still affecting the way I feel about meeting people. Maybe advertising works for you guys, but I can't do it anymore.