What causes it? and why is it a thing? are there symptoms of it? I basically know nothing about this so anything will be new information.
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Selective mutism is a psychological condition. It is basically mutism used as a coping mechanism, while the sufferer is not permanently mute. There’s a lot of good information on the wikipedia article.
It’s basically when someone refuses to speak, usually a child with some kind of anxiety disorder.
Selective mutism is an extreme anxiety disorder.
The biggest thing to understand is that it is “selective” in the medical sense, not the social sense. In medical terms, “selective” means that it happens in *select situations*. That is, it is neither constant (all the time) nor intermittent (turns on and off randomly.)
A person with selective mutism *does not choose to become mute in select circumstances.* That is very important to understand. This is an involuntary, debilitating condition that unfortunately has a confusing name.
So basically it’s a form of social anxiety. Usually in social settings, a person (often a child) will find themselves unable to speak. Have you ever found yourself tongue-tied, right before you have to give a speech in front of a crowd? That is what it is like for sufferers of this condition. Only when they swallow and open their mouths to try and press through, they find that they cannot.
When the situation eases, so too does the feeling of being unable to speak.
There is treatment, and many people who suffer this condition can and do successfully recover.
It’s an anxiety disorder. It’s when social anxiety is so extreme that it makes it impossible to speak in certain situations even though you’re physically capable of speech.
I was diagnosed with it as a teen. Haven’t gone mute in years but the anxiety is still there so I don’t know if it’s more accurate to say I have it or I had it.
I was perfectly happy to talk to my close family and friends but when talking to strangers or acquaintances I just couldn’t say anything. I closed up and couldn’t force the words out. It wasn’t a choice, I wasn’t being stubborn, I just couldn’t do it. It’s hard to explain if you’ve never been through it, but if you’ve ever frozen up and found yourself unable to do something because of the anxiety, it’s basically an extreme version of that.
A lot of the resources online are unhelpful because they talk about it like something that only affects children which isn’t necessarily true. I only started recovering when I turned 18, and that wasn’t because I was just grew out of it, it was because I moved away for university and was in a situation where nobody knew me so I could speak without any expectations. Once people know you’re selectively mute then that expectation becomes more of an obstacle than the anxiety itself.
Unfortunately there’s not much awareness of it. The support I got for it at school was practically nonexistent, when it wasn’t outright abusive
It fairly commonly coexists with autism (I’m autistic as well) but the overlap can be confusing since going mute can be a symptom of autism rather than a separate disorder. I believe the criteria for it to be diagnosed as a separate condition and not just a symptom of autism is whether it’s entirely due to autism or if it exists separately. E.g. autistic people will tend to go mute in ways that relate to their symptoms, like getting overwhelmed in new situations, whereas people with selective mutism will go mute consistently in the same situations regardless of mood or other factors.
Most people don’t know about it, probably because it’s basically never portrayed in media. Although there is a [Paul McCartney song about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhGycbxgcRg)
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