Selective mutism.

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When I was younger (4 to 7 years old) I struggled with selective mutism. Ask anyone now though, and you'll know these days I'm a lot more talkative! It was spotted fairly early by my teachers, and I was referred to speech therapy. I still have school records somewhere with notes on me about this.

Apparently back then I'd gotten to the point where I wasn't communicating in anyway, not even written communication- which you can really see as at the beginning of the records where I've started to write, and then half way through you can see a point where I just suddenly stopped (plus some teacher notes pointing this out).

Once my stutter and stammers were fixed, I became a lot more confident in talking, and the rest is history.

So, does anyone here have a similar experience? Do you still struggle with it? Personally I don't, but I suppose I was lucky that people spotted the problem quickly and referred me.

I don't struggle with selective mutism, but I at least had traits when I was younger. I never talked at school, and I would just sit in a corner reading my book. That might have just been a result of my social difficulties, though. I'm glad you don't struggle with it anymore, though!

I can't remember suffering from selective mutism as a child but I've had serious bouts of it as an adult and always after a breakdown. I'm more a listener than a talker IRL

My GF just told me selective mutism kicks in whenever there is conflict although sometimes I go the other way and explode.

I had fairly bad issues with this over my teen years. My home life was terrible and I was struggling with an eating disorder so I got so stressed out that I basically stopped speaking for several years. If I did speak, it would be so quiet that it was barely audible and I'd use as few words as possible so that I would often be unable to answer questions if it was more than a yes or a no. I also developed a stutter at the time that made it even worse because I was so scared of stuttering that I didn't want to risk it by speaking.

One of my worst memories surrounding this was going to get a haircut with my sister. I was probably about 15 and I remember walking in and having the woman ask what I wanted her to do. And I just couldn't respond or make eye contact or anything. After asking several times, she turned to my sister and asked, "What's wrong with her? Does she not speak English?" And my sister had to give her directions to cut my hair because I was totally unable make myself say anything at all.

The mutism for me got better once I moved out on my own as an adult and got treatment for my eating disorder. I no longer struggle with it so severely but I do still have times when I'm severely stressed out. Like SaveFerris, mine is the most obvious when I'm having problems in my relationship with my partner.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as selective mutism, but when I'm very stressed or overstimulated, or experiencing a strong emotion, it gets increasingly harder for me to speak, so I'm unable to speak loudly/clearly enough to be understood, or at all. I also have had some periods in my life where I wouldn't speak any more than absolutely necessary. In general, I'm not very talkative.