>"As for your questions, I was very confused reading them" \--> Thank you for your quick reply! To clear up the confusion I created a new diagram that explains the hierarchy in a more effective way. Take a look at this new [PDF document](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ufFZYAY706mFFqrTGceVfgIj8D_HLLkW/view?usp=sharing). This PDF document explains the following aspects: 1. Our stuttering starts at the probability/evaluation of a stutter \[hardwired triggers / mindset\] 2. The way stutterers evaluate (say: associate / perceive) stuttering leads to justifying: 'choosing to stop moving tongue' (that leads to a block), by blaming anxiety and a lack of confidence, i.e. 'I can't say a word' and 'fear of letters/situations'. 3. Besides the mindset (thinking pattern), stutterers also learned an incorrect behavioral pattern i.e. focusing on the 'racing heart beat' (and other fight or flight responses) as a 'stutter feeling' in order to predict a stutter so that one might prepare for it (i.e. using a technique when one anticipates a stutter). 4. This diagram leads to the conclusion that stuttering may only consist of 'symptoms'. That's all there is to it. 5. Secondary symptoms could be 'facial jerks, repetitions and attention-holding behavior', whereas primary symptoms could be 'all the reasons (that PWS perceive) to do a speech block', i.e. lack of confidence: 'I can't say a word' and thoughts/feelings regarding anticipatory anxiety. **So what can we learn from this?** **The first step** to progress is to acknowledge this thinking (and behavioral) pattern. If this pattern is complicated behavior, I suggest to distinguish your patterns between: evidence vs non-evidence, opinion vs fact, emotion based vs rational, new information vs existing information, normal vs obsession, helpful vs unhelpful, content vs metacognitize, cause vs effect, personal root vs non-root, evaluation of stutter vs fluency. **Step two** is to deal with it how you think is most effective, i.e. self-talk vs observation, learning progress vs automation What you can try is analyze your thought pattern 1 mili second before a block and ask yourself: 'Is this thought or feeling what a non-stutterer has? >You said: "Since I've had years of internalization of this anxiety & lack of confidence everytime I stutter, I know that the blocks are only happening because of anxiety/confidence, nothing else" You and many stutterers view the stutter cycle as: **Anticipatory anxiety > block** Yes, although this is true, we could also view this stutter cycle from a different angle: **Block > because I justify anticipatory anxiety** Both views are correct: nothing has only 1 truth. Conclusion: As long as stutterers blame anticipatory anxiety, they set a condition to themselves to choose for 'stop moving their tongue (or mouth)'. Do you now understand what I meant by my previous sentence, which is: >*"You have subconsciously created a condition to yourself to stop moving your tongue for anxiety/lack of confidence reasons. By blaming anxiety and lack of confidence, you justify 'stopping moving your tongue' as long as you have anxiety or lack of confidence."* To approach this stutter cycle, one could argue that there are many cornerstones that one could tackle, for example: 1. top level: choosing to move the tongue (and mouth) while experiencing anticipatory anxiety 2. metacognitive viewpoint of anticipatory anxiety (one level down) 3. content of anticipatory anxiety (two levels down) Did you try all three levels to approach your stutter cycle of a block? What did you learn from it and where did you get stuck?