While it might seem like a person with
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. Another misconception is that a child with selective mutism is controlling or manipulative, or has autism.
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.
After a coma lasting from 5 to 25 days, the seven patients who suffered from post-traumatic mutism went through a period of total absence of verbal production lasting from 5 to 94 days, associated with the recovery of non-verbal communication skills and emotional vocalization.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with dissociative features has also been associated as a potential precursor of selective mutism. Although it is an uncommon explanation for selective mutism, several cases of children who experienced severe abuse and trauma fit the classification of selective mutism.
Damage to certain parts of the brain from traumatic brain injuries can lead to akinetic mutism. If the frontal lobe is damaged, akinetic mutism is believed to be caused by hyperpathia, which causes pain or unpleasant sensations from normal stimuli, so patients avoid moving.
While it might seem like a person with psychogenic mutism is simply refusing to speak, they actually feel physically unable to speak, and forcing the person to speak is unlikely to work. Some of the causes of psychogenic mutism may be general anxiety or past trauma.
It may not be a permanent condition, as muteness can be caused or manifest due to several different phenomena, such as physiological injury, illness, medical side effects, psychological trauma, developmental disorders, or neurological disorders.
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.
Trauma dumping is defined as unloading traumatic experiences on others without warning or invitation. It's often done to seek validation, attention, or sympathy. While some initial relief may come from dumping your trauma onto someone else, the habit actually does more harm than good.
Often, trauma dumping is a coping mechanism or an unhealthy, ineffective way of seeking emotional support. Those who engage in trauma dumping are sometimes unable or unwilling to deal with their own issues and feelings. They might have anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem.
The symptoms of unresolved trauma may include, among many others, addictive behaviors, an inability to deal with conflict, anxiety, confusion, depression or an innate belief that we have no value.
Mutism can be a tricky diagnosis to make. Sometimes the culprit is purely physical: damage to the brain and/or speech muscles can leave a person mute. Sometimes the culprit appears to be emotional or mental. Other times, you'll run into some combination of the two.
loss of speech due to psychological rather than physical factors.
In elective mutism, a child elects to talk freely with intimates (e.g. family members); in progressive mutism a child does not communicate verbally with anyone (including intimates).
But trauma can also affect an individual's ability to trust other people. As a result, communicating with others becomes increasingly difficult for trauma survivors because they are protecting themselves from being hurt again. As well, they feel like danger lurks around the corner at all times.
In addition to a potential decline in listening abilities, people who have experienced a traumatic event often shy away from openly communicating. Open and forthcoming communication may be avoided for two types of reasons: The individual may want to avoid certain internal experiences.
Damage to a discrete part of the brain in the left frontal lobe (Broca's area) of the language-dominant hemisphere has been shown to significantly affect the use of spontaneous speech and motor speech control.
Treatment for selective mutism
Early diagnosis and mental health treatment for the disorder can increase the chances of your child overcoming or vastly improving related symptoms.
Another hallmark of this type of aphasia is difficulty understanding speech. The most common type of nonfluent aphasia is Broca's aphasia (see figure). People with Broca's aphasia have damage that primarily affects the frontal lobe of the brain.
Conversion and somatoform types of dissociation may also occur in people with DID or DDNOS/OSDD. Thus, they may experience physical symptoms affecting their sensory or motor functions for which no physical cause in the present can be identified – e.g. blindness, deafness, mutism, paralysis, pain, seizures.
In some cases, anxiety can affect one's ability to speak clearly and concisely when interacting with others, causing speech to be slower or faster than normal, and in some cases, speech can become jumbled or slurred.