Anyone here with a speech impediment? What actually helped you? Please help🥺

I have a lisp and honestly it's something I've struggled with for years.

When I was around 13 I got bullied a lot because of the way I spoke. I never really told my parents how much it was affecting me but I remember spending hours searching for speech therapists online and begging my parents to contact one.

After weeks of convincing they finally agreed. A speech therapist started coming to our home and for the first time I felt like maybe I could actually fix it. But after about a week my father stopped the sessions because they cost ₹500 per session and the therapist said it would likely take 3–6 months.

My parents kept saying it wasn't a big issue and that lots of people have it.

I know speech therapy is expensive and I don't want to put extra financial pressure on my parents. I understand why they made that decision.

But at the same time it's hard to explain how much this has affected me. Every conversation every introduction every presentation and every time someone asks me to repeat myself I'm reminded of it.

Now I'm about to start college and meet completely new people and I really want to work on this before then. Not because I'm ashamed of myself but because I've spent years feeling held back by it and I don't want to carry that feeling into the next phase of my life.

It's been years now and I still have it.

So I'm curious:

• Does anyone here have or had a speech impediment?
• What helped you improve?
• Are there any exercises, resources, YouTube channels, or techniques that genuinely worked?
• Is it realistic to improve a lisp significantly without regular speech therapy?

Would really appreciate hearing from people who've been through something similar.