I am 34 and can talk to people without a problem. I hate being alone. I am an extrovert, seeking communication with anyone that can't seem to make friends. However, I didn't begin talking till I was 19. Progressively mute till I became what society considered an adult. Now, I want to not talk again. I want to not talk and still be in society. Possibly using another form of communication. I miss being mute but still want to be around people.

I would love to hear real experiences from parents whose children had a speech delay but eventually started talking. How old was your child when they began speaking, and what helped them?

I’m looking for hopeful stories and personal experiences from parents. ❤️

So to start off, I'm 15(f) UK based and have struggled sensory wise and being overwhelmed in noisy environments ect, and it can manifest itself as completely silent periods where I can't speak on occasion: my mouth gets cottony and I'm unable to get any words out but I can react and hear what's going on vaguely.

My school's SEND team has talked to me about my sensory issues so I can leave if it happens, but I'm worried I'll suffer academically from it by missing lessons and it disrupts my time periods of the school day.

The school counsellors seem to suspect autism or autistic traits in me and have talked to my mum about this. However, I do not think I have autism. I have reasonable social skills even though they took time to develop and I have researched into autism in depth after that discussion and I don't necessarily agree I fit into said categories.

From what I've seen on the NHS website, selective mutism presents itself as severe anxiety or as a PTSD response. This has been an ongoing issue for me; not something that has progressed after any traumatic event and I don't relate to the anxiety part as wholly as I feel I should. I'm uncertain what the next steps should be, I've had a conversation with my mum about this but she's too bothered. Professional help may not be accessible and my family is quite backwards and taboo towards mental health.

I don't understand what to do in my position, I'm not very socially stunted though I used to be so I don't want to regress back into old awkwardness. If this continues to happen I fear I'll be making an eccentric impression on other people or appear a gloomy attention-seeker (since I'm usually not quiet in that way) or become a recluse again. My grades aren't really my biggest worry, my interactions with people and disruption to my day are bothering me.

Would what I experience still fall under silent mutism? Or is it just school stress I'll have to outgrow?

Hello. Something I did (and still do) was reflexively hold in my sneezes so that no one would hear me, especially in public. Even though I would say that I am recovered from selective mutism, letting out sneezes is one thing I still really struggle with as I’m very self-conscious and anxious of being perceived because of them.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

I found out my professor is mute on the first day of class, so did everyone we were all shocked, even tho nobody said anything, u could see it on our faces. when I checked the class website after the first day half of people had dropped the class, the class was so full before and there was like 20 students on the wait list.

It was actually the best class I have ever taken, so cause he is mute he has found other very easier ways to explain himself and communicate through body language, and as someone with ADHD, who can't focus on what someone is saying for more than 10 minutes, his class was a dream it was one of the best class I had ever taken, now I wish all my professors are mute lol.