Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder that causes people to freeze up and turn silent in certain stressful situations — school is the most frequently reported one, as the disorder often pops up by age 5, when kids start attending preschool or kindergarten.
Shutting down emotions can be a normal part of human experience, as a coping strategy in stressful situations. Under high stress, it allows your body and brain to protect itself from perceived threats or harm.
When mutism occurs as a symptom of post-traumatic stress, it follows a very different pattern and the child suddenly stops talking in environments where they previously had no difficulty.
Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in which a person who is otherwise capable of speech becomes unable to speak when exposed to specific situations, specific places, or to specific people, one or multiple of which serving as triggers. This is caused by the freeze response.
Mutism may be due to apraxia, that is, problems with coordination of muscles involved in speech. Another cause may be a medical condition impacting the physical structures involved in speech, for example, loss of voice due to the injury, paralysis, or illness of the larynx.
Children with traumatic mutism usually develop mutism suddenly in all situations. An example would be a child who witnesses the death of a grandparent or other traumatic event, is unable to process the event, and becomes mute in all settings.
Even if remaining silent means your own safety is at risk, the gears between your brain and mouth simply don't turn. It's a condition called selective mutism, and it is very real, even though people really struggle with believing it is.
There are a number of different things that can cause emotional numbness to occur. While depression and anxiety are the most common causes, others include the following: Stress and stress hormones: Elevated cortisol levels can lead to emotional numbness in some people.
Crying is a normal response to deep emotion. When we are hurt, frustrated, or angry, it's common to get teary-eyed and experience that familiar lump in the throat, making it difficult to talk. Crying can convey to others how deeply we feel or that we need extra care, which can be helpful.
Selective mutism is a severe anxiety disorder where a person is unable to speak in certain social situations, such as with classmates at school or to relatives they do not see very often. It usually starts during childhood and, if left untreated, can persist into adulthood.
Some of the causes of psychogenic mutism may be general anxiety or past trauma. For example, a child who is learning to speak might stop speaking if he or she is molested or threatened.
It is an anxiety disorder that affects a person's ability to speak in public—often to debilitating effect. Adults with selective mutism may have trouble interacting with others in group settings, social gatherings, and the workplace.
If you have traumatic mutism, you may be unable to talk in all situations following a trauma. On the other hand, with trauma-induced selective mutism, you may find it impossible to talk only in certain situations — say, in front of the person who hurt you or in a setting that resembles the circumstances of your trauma.
For those who suffer from high-functioning depression, episodes of major depression might be present along with periods of less severe symptoms. Because they are able to hide their depression from others, they tend to suffer in silence and often fail to receive help.
When someone has shut down, they certainly look like they don't care. The facial expression is usually neutral, there is little to no expression of emotion, and voice tone becomes monotonous. Answers to questions are short, and you begin to interpret all of this as indifference.
It is important to remember that emotional detachment is not a mental health condition, but it might be a symptom of some mental disorders.
Alexithymia is a broad term to describe problems with feeling emotions. In fact, this Greek term used in Freudian psychodynamic theories loosely translates to “no words for emotion.” While the condition is not well-known, it's estimated that 1 in 10 people has it.
You don't just experience diminished pleasure. You might also notice a decreased capacity to express your emotions. Some people with anhedonia, especially anhedonic depression, do notice they can no longer cry easily — or at all.
What to know about alexithymia. Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty identifying and expressing emotions. It is not a mental health disorder. People with alexithymia may have problems maintaining relationships and taking part in social situations.
Many people suffer from shutting down when they are upset. There is no one cause of this behavior. It could be a self-defense mechanism, it could be an inability to process negative feelings, and it could be due to dissociation. These are just a few reasons why someone may shut down when they are upset.
Shutting down emotionally makes it impossible to feel compassion: These individuals are often incapable of feeling compassion. Emotional repression makes it impossible to care so deeply about others, that they're compelled to act on their behalf.
Depression is a state of behavioral shutdown.
Some professionals falsely view selective mutism as a form of autism or a learning disability. Children with learning disabilities or autism may demonstrate symptoms of the disorder, but selective mutism is not commensurate to an autism or learning disability diagnosis.
A ghost mute means that when you attempt to communicate with other players using your account, your messages will not be successfully sent.
The main sign of selective mutism is a month or more of failure to speak only in certain social situations. The problem is not due to another communication disorder, such as autism. And it is not due to not knowing the spoken language.