I didn't know i had selective mutism until i found out by doing some research and talking to my family members that i was close to, whenever i go out and the actions and things I've did was like this in the video, even some family I don't even speak to them its just hard to slip out a sentence without feeling very shy or having an anxiety attack or having to stutter or stammer alot when speaking is annoy for me, i hate it but I've been actually been going good with those bad times.. meeting people or talking is my number one uncomfortable thing to do i just get nervous/shy/anxious/having anxiety, its just !BOOM! For me.
out of the many therapists i've seen, only one has understood me & my sm. at first it was awkward for us both but then we were able to communicate through pen & paper, we eventually got along & would pass the session just playing board games, eventually i started speaking to her & she noticed the progress & we stopped the sessions. then my depression got bad again & i was assigned to a new therapist, but covid came around so we would do over the phone sessions & it went downhill from there, i would silently cry throughout the phone call sessions bc i physically couldn't speak, there was so much i wanted to say but i couldn't, my therapist would get upset & i eventually just ghosted her bc it rubbed me the wrong way how she would huff & puff out of frustration 😭☠️
Please please can someone reply to me... I rlly need help because i dont know if i have selective mutism or not... I can speak easily actually! I mean i love going off on long conversations ( mostly only with friends or my mum though..) but when under pressure or stressed or something stressful is happening i just cant. I can do hand gestures and write but not speak. Please can someone help me? Im not trying to fake this because im fully aware how serious this is i just would like to know from people with this what they think is going on tysm 😊
Can someone please make a discord for all of us i feel so happy knowing i can relate to so many people and would love to be able to chat with you guys❤
Ever since i was 4 years old, i had a rare anxiety disorder called 'selective mutism'. Selective Mutism is where i can't speak in social situations. I find it very hard to talk to someone. My heart would race when someone speaks to me. My mom took notice of it. She had to bring me to a specialist. I don't really remember much of this. Then i was diagnosed, my day-care teachers would tease me. Making me scared and lonely. As soon as i got in elementary.. UGH! it was terrible. I remember Kindergarten. There was this mean girl who had a friend with her, they would pick on me and making the other kids pick on me, they would hurt me, pull my hair, call me bad names, harassing me, the teacher just ignored. I was bullied since head-start. I'm now in highschool, and boy.. shit has gotten worse. Everyone. Like. Literally everyone bullies me now, i can't handle this. I feel like I'm full of rage and can't get it out. I'm scared of losing control of myself so i simply took deep breaths. Walking in school. People staring at me.. like I'm a weirdo, i try to hold my tears, i didn't have any friends, my mom supported me, my dad also supports me as well. I hope things will get better for me cuz i don't wanna fall into deep depression. This is my actual story. If you're going through the same thing what I'm going through. Please. You're not alone, I'm always with you. I love you! 💌
It's nice to know there is someone just like me out there struggling with the same things thank you I believe in you too remember your not alone and that goes for everyone
I have a friend who has a pretty severe case of selective mutism and grew up in a bad home so he learned ASL to get around it. Its gotten better and he now talks with his brother, husband and a few close friends but spent a very long time in silence. Also absolutely worst therapist, i would shut downbif her level of fristration and lack of understanding even came near me
i love this. i have SM and i dont think people actually understand how hard it actually is. i get comments all the time being like "are you mute" "can u even speak (language)", "you dont speak much, do u?." "can you say _____" "ive never heard you speak" "cats got ur tongue?" "shes just a little shy." like no im not just a little shy. its the feeling of not being able to speak. the anxiety that just rives up my body whenever someone speaks to me or asks me a question. and then im called non-social, ignorant and no manners. i dont control it. my whole life ive grown up with only being able to talk with close family and friends. whenever i wanted to ask for example a teacher smth i always asked my friends if they could do it. and whenever i ask someone if they can for example ask their parents for the wifi pass and the tell me to do it myself.. like no. id rather not have any wifi than literally stare into their parents eyes like a dumb freak cause no words are coming out of my mouth. when i moved and changed schools i was all alone for so long cause i couldnt talk to anyone. "why dont you try making some friends?" i would if i was able to. but after like half a year of going in that school a girl approached me and now im in the best friend group ever. next time you ever see someone whos probably dealing with the same thing be patient. dont rush them. dont tell them to speak. dont say you cant hear them. dont ask them to say something. you can sometimes hand them a paper and a pen for them to write with. but just dont make them feel like theyre not worth anything and theyre just a mistake because their not able to speak as easily as some others can. and dont try making it into something to joke about. cause it certainly isnt.
What a fantastic counselor/therapist...not. But wow...very well done. Made me cry. All forms of being stuck in your head are horrible, but this must one of the worst kind...
Exactly this thing happens to me Teacher insulted me so many times in front of whole class because i couldn't talk ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️ They thought i was dumb wasted material, who won't be able to do anything in his life ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
The way that it ended had me cringing. There should’ve been a happy ending. That woman that taught the therapy was disgusting. It’s not like they were able to help having it.
i have selective mutism. not as bad as this character but when i get really anxious or haven’t planned what i’m going to say / the planned conversation gets derailed i stop and i can’t talk anymore for a good while
Hey, Bravo. Lovely film. I'm working on a film with a selectively mute protagonist. Would love to talk to you at some point. where did you go for reseach etc. J M
I deal with many mental issues, including autism, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and ADHD. This may stem from complications of epilepsy and Ehlers-Danlos. I don't have it as bad as Robin or Jay. I can function in the world. But I get to where I can't talk, or I can try to say something, but the specific words taht I want to say don't come out. In this state I can even say things like "I'm trying," or "the words aren't coming," or "it's not working," but I can't say the thing that I wanted to say. It doesn't affect me when I'm speaking in front of a crowd (usually) but mainly speaking within a crowd, or one-on-one. I don't think it's quite the same thing, but I get what Robin and people like her are feeling. Folks look at me like I'm stupid, and I hate it. It's really interfering in things, and as I approach the end of my 30's I think it's getting worse. Anyway, thank you for making this film, Shane Meuwissen. I really appreciate it.
As an artist, if I were the therapist, I would create a space with ways to express yourself. Fabulous beads, beautiful origami paper, high quality pens and paper to draw. A quiet place to just be yourself, to experiment and not be judged.
I unfortunately think I have this, I only talk to my family and best friend (who spent almost 2 years on trying to get me to talk ), I've never had a conversation with any of my relatives, don't have any other friends but 1, people gave up on getting me to talk to them...... It's hard 😥😥
Wow I’ve never heard of this. And all the people in the comments. Im a older guy who has stuttered my whole life. That did not stop me fro speaking, and I never give up and constantly work on my speech. What I consistently see in young people with problems now is you all want acceptance and basically take no action and responsibility to help yourself. It takes guts, it take hard consistent work,it takes suffering , it takes whatever you got to do to improve yourself daily your whole life. All you young people roll over and quit at the slightest obstacle in life. You must understand that on the other side of suffering is victory. There is no easy road. We ALL got difficulties to go through.
I have selective mutism, at least im 99% sure i do. I don't talk in school or even with family, I have only ever talked to my parents but they believe I am just shy and they tell me that even if I do have it that it doesn't matter and I should just talk to people and I'm overreacting. I don't know what to do, I don't have any friends in school and I just moved to another state 2 years ago so I don't have any family out here and the little friends i did have are all gone. I am 13, I wish I could speak to people but no matter how hard I try I freeze up and whenever I get a word out I feel like I made everything awkward and never talk to them again since I'm embarrassed and feel like I messed everything up. Because everyone believes I'm just shy they tell me I'm being rude by not answering and I need to stop pretending. I want to get counseling but I'm to scared to tell a counselor about it and my parents don't have enough money for my old counselor that I was already used to. I don't have anyone to talk to except my parents and my siblings don't even know how to speak yet since they are 2 and 6 months. My mom had me at a young age to. She is 29 now, and I have a step dad who is 28. anyways sorry for this essay nobody is probably going to read this anyway.
I read because this because i have hope for people like you so please never give up trying to express yourself , this is a condition don't put yourself down over it how can you expect not to mess up when you have selective mutism take small steps, treat yourself better and you are gunna improve.
My daughter is 6, and she has been silent in kindergarten and now in preschool. We always thought with my wife, what we did wrong, and what are our mistakes that she is afraid of communicating with other children? With our relatives, she is very active and playful. But with other kids, she is extremely shy. Yesterday I have realized that probably she has selective mutism. I do not know what to do and how to overcome it. I read so many articles about it last night. I am still not sure if it is curable or not. Even if it is curable, we live in a country where there is no proper experts who can help. Please advise practical tips on how we can help her to overcome it.
I'm 13 now but I've had selective mutism since I was 3. My mum died 2 months after I turned 6 and i was diagnosed a bit later. My primary school tried to help me and my dad didnt know about it until we got a letter in april of 2020 when I was 10 (gonna be 11 in that year). Ever since I started secondary school, it got a lot worse because the teachers here apparently didnt know that I had this until a few months later and I was so overwhelmed just because I *had* to answer my name in the register. But my primary school teachers said that they definitely did tell them. The teachers at my secondary school don't even try to help me. But recently, my dad booked an appointment. They said I have to wait 2 years because there are lots of other people with depression and anxiety and other things. Unless a teacher refers me to someone, i have to wait. My aunty called the school (because my dad doesnt know english well) and they didnt pick up until she rang them again 2 days later and they said they will call her back but they never did. I also have SEMH needs which I'm not sure my school know about.
I used to laugh at this kid because they *seemed* to be such a rebel and ignore the teacher. I feel guilty because if they had selective mutism then that probably made them feel worse. I have public speaking anxiety quite bad but it's getting better and have done lot's of research about these mental conditions as it's upsetting and also extremely fascinating.
Its so hard 😭. I went 8+years with this. Constantly exposed and i couldnt do it. I didnt learn much at school. I was not exposed safely to deal with this its too overwhelming. I literally lost my childhood and suffer till today.
Robin is just like me, I dont talk at all, and i always hide in my own world with my headphones on, that is the only thing keeping me from getting a panicattack.
I'd always have classmates at school talking to me as if I was about five. "Can you say this? Try saying this! Repeat after me!" It was so frustrating. And the teachers were no help either; picking on me in class to answer questions I didn't put my hand up for, and getting me to go to other classes to deliver messages to teachers, because they thought it might "help me out of my shell". 😡 In year 11, I had an English teacher who, after I said "here" when he called my name in the register, proceeded to make fun of my voice for the next ten minutes in front of the whole class. He made fun of one of my biggest insecurities and destroyed my confidence just for a few cheap laughs. It's been about ten years since I've left school now, and I'm glad that selective mutism is getting more awareness now.
Even though I don't have selective mutism I know what it feels like to have people not understand it. (More for the awkward feeling that someone thinks you may be rude or made at them when you just can't get words out...) (I have been partially/totally unable to talk for the past month and I still can't figure out why. (I'd like to add that first week it took place I found a few little similarities with selective mutism but I thought it was safe to not assume anything too quickly as I'm no expert, I'm just a very young adult who knows a few things.) Also I would like to say that I'm sorry you had to go through that, I hope you found a better place and got over this stupid teacher comment and all the stuff.
Very interesting. Nicely done. My neighbor is like this. I was told he's a deaf mute. Not true. He hears and speaks in two languages just fine. The other neighbor, a lout, calls the other one Zombie.. not to his face. I've never seen this mutist behavior before. It does come off as bizarre and very anti social. Maybe it's a form of autism? I have no idea.
im learning asl to better speak non-verbally. ive never been comfortable with people trying to coerce me into speaking, like it would fix me. i dont think i need to be fixed
“Just talk to someone” It isn’t that easy lady. Forcing someone to do something because it’s inconvenient for you isn’t “therapy”. My mom deals with teachers like this all the time at school. She’s a SpEd teacher who specializes in kids with behavioral disorders. Many of her kids are traumatized and live in the foster system. Others have disorders because of genetics or their mothers took drugs while pregnant. Some of the adults understand and try to help, but the administration doesn’t care. My mom has to work late and do the paperwork of several teachers because the schools are too lazy to do their own damn jobs. “Just talk” isn’t an option for these kids. They’ve been put through hell by the foster system, by their families, or by school. All because it inconvenient for the adults to do their jobs.
I love this. I've seen a lot of misrepresentation of selective mutism, but this shows how it really is perfectly. Makes me happy to see that some people understand
