Losing speech temporarily

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I couldn't talk for maybe a minute or less... I know it doesn't sound like anything to worry about... I'm sick and I was sick the last time this happened. But I can't help worrying; what if this happens more? What if this happens when I'm not sick? What if it lasts longer? What if it lasts forever?

It seems like speech cuts out for me when my body is under some stress. It's happened twice when I haven't been sick-- once after breaking a finger, once while melting down from easily the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to me. (But the latter was only emotional stress... so I guess there doesn't have to be anything wrong with my body.)

Not exactly the most reassuring thing in the world.

It's happened to me three times this past month, in two different ways. The first two times were for a couple of hours each, and the last time was for nearly a full day.

I sympathize with your worries.

One thing I was advised was when speech cuts out, try just making noises. I think this helped me on two of those occasions. On the third occasion I was able to speak, but not in a way in which I could really communicate, so making noises didn't help... and it lasted much longer, so hmm.

It happens to me sometimes when I have an argument with my husband. At those moments I feel like a goldfish out of the bowl .
It is stress.
It goes by. When I relax a bit it goes away. I know: relaxing is easier said than done.

It happens to me under stress. I leave it alone - it'll come back when it's ready.

Happens during a shut down. It is scary the first time but they usually don't occur that many times in autism.
The stress really has to be great for it to happen.
I get it happening a lot because of other issues.

Yep, happens to me too. Anytime the stress level gets too high, it gets harder to speak. Well, more like, "I can't conceive of speaking," than "I try and I can't," but the phenomenon's a known one. For me, it helps to write things out in my head and then read them off to say them. But of course the best remedy is keeping stress low to begin with.

It's called selective mutism, and it's pretty common amongst autistics, from what I hear.

It hasn't happened to me recently (as far as I know... I don't talk much these days), but it used to happen quite frequently.

It happens to me too and I believe it's caused by stress. I usually turn mute during meltdowns and conflicts and when confronted harshly. I get my speech back once the level of stress reduces.

This is very annoying and inconvenient.

Raises hand...

If I'm a little too excited about answering a question, where I have exactly the right detail and phrasing all lined up and ready to deliver - it fails. I simply lose the power of speech and can't even find a few words to indicate to the other person what's happening.
Or if an argument or disagreement gets too heated. Speech just stops functioning.
If I'm really lucky, I manage to go "Gmmph" or "Aghmm" instead.

Only lasts ten seconds or so and I try to get past it ASAP.
If it lasted any longer then that would be a different thing altogether.

It used to be called 'Elective mutism' ... my brother never said a single word to anybody outside his immediate family until he was 10. He saw a child psychiatrist once a fortnight for 5 years - and never said a word to her. He had absolutely no difficulty talking within the family, even in the presence of other people. If they spoke to him he would just gaze at them until they "gave up".

So why was the label changed to 'Selective mutism'?

'Selective mutism' is an expansion of the label 'Elective mutism' to include non-elective mutisms ... mutisms in which the person is not consciously aware of why they are not speaking.

My brother described his sessions with his psychiatrist as "An interesting battle of wills."

Oh, and, by the way ... despite never saying a single word to anybody at school he was top of the class.

He is now a member of Mensa, plays chess internationally ... but works as a maintenance man.

No it's called selective mutism because it's now known to be not elective (on purpose) at all.

And really it's supposed to apply to an anxiety disorder. Not autistic speech shutdown. It's just some people like Tony Attwood started using it wrong and everyone else followed. It's irritating because the way you solve each one bears no resemblance to each other, nor does the cause.