I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that the following link is for a REALLY GREAT website about SM, also information about a CANADIAN support group.

http://www.designandcopy.ca/silentchild/index.html

Thanks.

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Doughnut Sprinkle Snorting=cool

I have this.

It sucks because I'm now 17 and have only just discovered it has a name. If I'd known earlier it would have made a monumental difference.

It also sucks because I'm in the middle of being fully aware of the problem, still being socially and academically affected by it, and having seen a couple of "professionals" already who didn't seem to realise the urgency of my situation (although I am seeing a proper psychologist at the end of this month, who hopefully won't be as ignorant).


The prospect of becoming an adult with selective mutism frightens me. I can't imagine how terrible it is to live for years and years with that awful, indescribable fear.


(I wonder why this isn't in the "Advice" section...)

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Well, no one was asking for advice on it really. Though I think this should have been posted in the Discussion forum for sure.

I watched a discovery channel special on the Virginia Tech shootings and found out that the guy that did the shootings had selective mutism when he was younger. He went through years of therapy and took medication throughout middle and high school to rectify the problem and it slowly, but surely got better. He stopped all treatment when he went to college though and everyone said he was just very quiet all the time and rarely spoke to anyone.

So I'm sure there are specialized instutions/doctors that can treat SM, but I don't know about how successful it is in the long-term.

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If they pinpointed his mutism earlier and he still went berzerk, I'll end up decimating my hometown by Christmas

Not really, but that still scares me. I've been so volatile lately - one of the worst things about mutism is that the severe difficulty of verbal/physical emotional expression makes your anger rise exponentially, and no matter how much provocation or abuse or "encouragement" anyone gives, nor how desperately you will your mouth to speak, some indescribable thing roots you to the spot giving you no choice but to stand there and take it all.
I got a flogging from my mother in the past, regarding my "extreme shyness". And during the ordeal it was totally physically impossible to do anything but take her verbal abuse. Wanted to run - couldn't. Wanted to scream back - couldn't. Just sat there and let the hurt sink in.


I am aware of one SM support group fairly close to my area. My mother (now very supportive of my condition, thank goodness) gave them a call weeks ago. The woman who answered denied mutism and simply put it down to 'social anxiety disorder', so now I have no idea where I'm going with that place

As I mentioned I am seeing a psychologist soon, so hopefully I can get an official diagnosis and stop people making any more false judgements - hearing them constantly gets very, very irritating

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Do keep in mind that he didn't go on this violent rampage until four years after going off all treatment. Treatment's an ongoing process, especially for something like this.

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I have gone through this as a child.
And I can remember the school telling my parents it would be a wise
idea, that I were to go on medication, and my parents said, absolutely
not.
My adopted mother did her reaserch, and didn't like the possible side effects,
so I didn't go on anything, but I did go to therapy.
I don't remember much more then that, except I didn't listen to anything
anyone told me.
I was really messed up when I was born, and needed so much medical care.
I do believe, there is so much more they can now a days, then from when I
was a child, witch I think is just awesome. Children have more of a chance
of growing up having normal life, and just be a child.

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This is just a guess, but I think my cousin may have had this when she was younger. When we were younger, at school, she literally could not speak. Maybe she was just really really shy though, as a few months after school started, she did start to speak to me. (Although she was still quite shy around others at the time.)

She's not like this now at all though. She says whatever she feels like saying, whether you like it or not, haha, so I think hers may have just been extreme shyness. It does make me wonder though if maybe she had this.

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