It’s feeling alone, because you’re ‘that kid who doesn’t talk’ and most people have never encountered anyone like you before, and they don’t understand why you can’t speak. It’s feeling as if your throat is physically locked when you’re put in a position in which you are expected to speak and want to speak, but can’t. Selective Mutism is like having your voice trapped inside your own mind. I often feel that I could no more use my vocal cords to break a silence, to get somebody’s attention or to initiate an interaction than I could run through fire or do something dangerous to my life. Help for young adults with SM is currently sparse however. Sources of help are available for children with Selective Mutism.This article may be useful if you are new to Selective Mutism and would like to read an overview of the condition. Overview of Selective Mutism - written for the Victoria Derbyshire programme and theīBC News Article on Selective Mutism in adults.Others, however, encounter further - sometimes acute - mental health issues. Some adults do get by as they are, supported by other people. Such outcomes are not always the case - of course. In fact, while SM may seem innocuous in younger children (and is often downplayed as cute, easily solvable, behaviour by most professionals at the expense of thoseįor whom this is not the case), Selective Mutism may lead to additional mental health issues such as Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), *Our* simple statistic (used by some professionals without permission, by virtue of never crediting it to us) is that at least 1 in 2400 young adults have SM.

Non-serious issue that has zero negative long-term ramefications. The main, problematic stereotype these days (which is particularly problematic for those whose experiences of this condition were serious) is that SM is a school-only, childhood-only, Selective Mutism websites) continue into adulthood. The condition generally starts in early childhood but can (contrary to popular belief and even misinformation on other well-known (in the presence of certain people, for instance, or in certain environments) due to a complex, 'stable' system of anxieties which differs However they are persistently mute or struggle to speak in certain situations Selective Mutism (SM) is a situational 'anxiety disorder' which affects both children and adults.Ĭhildren and adults with SM are physically capable of speaking.

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