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Advice Hi, I hope it’s okay that I am posting this here. I (36F) don’t have a stutter, but my partner (45M) does. We have been together for almost a decade, and ever since we retired 8 years ago, he has slowly been withdrawing for the world. As in the only person that he has spoken to since his parents both passed away a year ago is me. Before their passings, it wasn’t much better, as they were the only other people he had spoken to in a couple years, and even that was infrequently. When we retired he was completely exhausted from having to deal with people all the time, so I thought that if I took care of all of the tasks requiring vocal interaction for a while, he would be able to heal emotionally a bit and that ultimately he would rejoin me in doing some of the things that I took over. I think maybe I totally fucked up though, and that all was a huge mistake. Please don’t take this as me complaining about helping my partner when it comes to mitigating the stress of his disfluency. While I obviously can’t fully understand what it’s like to have a stutter, I definitely recognize how many things the rest of us do with ease. Because I now do not only my things, but also his. He now avoids almost every human interaction, including anything live chat, even when it’s 100% text based, for fear that they are going to say “We can’t help you with that over chat, you have to call us”. He does participate in email interactions and stuff such as YouTube comments and the like, basically anything where there is zero chance of being put on the spot and being told he has to call someone he feels safe with. This is probably crossing over into r/relationships territory, but maybe someone here has been in a similar spot and can give me some tips on how to broach the negative effects that having to shoulder all of this has on me. Like, he literally won’t get groceries because he can’t handle the cashier asking him if he wants to pay cash or debit, or offer him some stupid promotion he would have to reply to. At the moment we have no vehicle because the car is in his name, and for the last 6 months it has had no insurance because I can’t get him to go to the insurance office with me to get it renewed (online isn’t an option here.) Any time I try to bring it up, he acts like I am being a dick and am dismissing his disability, which isn’t true at all. I have so much more respect and compassion for what people who stutter have to deal with than before I knew him. I should mention that I have severe anxiety/PTSD from the time I spent in the military, so I probably find it all much more difficult to deal with everything than someone who doesn’t have to deal with their own anxieties on top of the extra tasks. It’s like he thinks I am trying to trump his disability with my own, but I’m not. However, I am feeling that he feels that his disability completely trumps mine, which makes me feel unappreciated. We don’t have a bad relationship, most of the time these things are a non issue, but when things get difficult for me, we begin to argue. I don’t want to start to resent him for his inability to do certain things, but sometimes I am just so, so tired. Any advice on how I can bring these things up in a less offensive way so that he doesn’t feel attacked or put down would be appreciated. Obviously I am coming at this from the wrong angle and am inadvertently setting off his defences. He is normally a very sweet and empathetic person, except when it comes to this . Thank you. Sorry for the vent, I really hope no one is put off or offended. I really do love the man.