Thanks for your thoughtful response! I'm gonna do my best to answer your questions, and answer them in a way how I personally see them. You asked: >*"One thing I'm not sure about is why I stutter more on certain sounds than others?"* Great question! I can’t say for certain, but I believe many factors influence how stuttering manifests. This [scientific model](https://www.stuttering-specialist.com/post/is-eb-stuttering-inside-out), for example, highlights aspects like linguistic factors, speaking demands, anticipatory anxiety, and cognitive functioning. However, are all those factors all equally significant in influencing stuttering based on certain sounds? I think one factor in particular is very prominent here. I think the core of the stuttering experience regarding certain sounds, comes from our subconscious reacting to stimuli (like, the subconscious thoughts, storytelling, emotions of certain sounds) we're not even aware of. Over time, if we stutter long enough, I think that our subconscious starts forming value judgments about certain sounds, words, and situations, and other conditions. These may or may not become "conditioned stimuli", over time, that trigger our approach-avoidance conflict (and that elicit a reflexive panic freeze response). Basically, at the heart of it, I think *perception* plays a key role. For instance, if we focus on the steady beat of a metronome, our perception of said "certain sounds" shifts, which can sometimes prevent the triggering of the approach-avoidance conflict and lead to fluency. That said, simply "ignoring" conditioned stimuli - I think, probably isn’t a long-term effective fix. It’s similar to how we might speak fluently when alone at home because we’re not engaging with those triggers. But once we're back in social situations, stuttering returns. I see this as evidence that simply ignoring or distracting ourselves from conditioned stimuli isn’t the most effective approach, especially for those who have stuttered for a long time and have deeply ingrained conditioning, in this way. Your thoughts? Additionally, I think that, over time, most stutterers have developed "negative value judgements" (say: false beliefs). For example, We might rely on the need for less perception (of the conditioned stimuli) for speech execution to proceed. However, it's exactly such value judgements that keep us stuck in this vicious circle-approach-avoidance conflict. Right? This is just my own take on it