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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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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