Honeoye, N.Y. - Paul Riegal first noticed something was wrong when he was five years old.
"I tried to speak," Riegel said. "But I couldn't. I wanted to say different words, but nothing would come out."
He spent years in speech therapy, but still struggled to get the words out. Riegel felt angry and alone. Even worse, he didn't want to use his voice.
"If I could avoid talking, I would," he said. "I would ask a friend to come over and just text them instead."
Riegel and his family recently saw "The King's Speech" -- a movie about England's King George VI and his struggle to overcome the condition and speak publicly. The teen felt like parts of his own life were playing out onscreen.
"I thought it was great to tell people who don't stutter what it's really like," he said.
The medical community is also trying to understand. In 2010, researchers discovered a gene that may cause the condition.
"The brains of people who stutter are formed differently than people who don't," said Susan Cochrane, a speech and language pathologist who works with Riegel. "So you have a predisposition to stutter. That was true with King George, because if it was genetic, his brother may have stuttered as well, but that wasn't the case."
The biggest problem, Cochrane said, is fear. "That's what keeps the stuttering going," she said. "If you're afraid, you push yourself, and you start to avoid social situations. It's devastating."
Riegel hopes the movie will teach others to be more patient, and encourage people like him to seek help.
"If someone who stutters is talking, don't just walk away," Riegel said. "Because he or she probably needs a friend who understands them."
