Elective Mutism Vs Selective Mutism, symptoms, Causes and Treatment
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Elective mutism is condition, when person has ability to speak, but doesn’t speak in almost all social situations.
Classically, Elective mutism was described as "a continuous refusal to speak in almost all social situations" despite normal ability to speak.
Such cases are described in books, and movies. But medically such kind of mutism is not supported and the term itself is outdated.
Since 1994, the term elective mutism was revised and renamed to Selective mutism.
Now, selective mutism is considered as 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.
This is caused by the freeze response. Selective mutism usually co-exists with social anxiety disorder.
People with selective mutism stay silent even consequences of their silence is unfavorable for them.
The behaviour may be perceived as shyness or rudeness by others.
Example of selective mutism is a kid, who stays completely silent at school for years, but speaks at home .
Another example, kid speaks only to peers, but not to adults.
In Severe Forms disorder can progress, until the person with this condition no longer speaks to anyone in any situation, even close family members. Such severe cases is called Progressive mutism.
Selective mutism should be differentiate from ordinal shyness.
Also, Particularly in young children, selective mutism can sometimes be confused with an autism spectrum disorder.
Although autistic people may also be selectively mute, they often display other behaviors-stimming, repetitive behaviors, social isolation even among family members (not always answering to name, for example)-that set them apart from a child with selective mutism.
If mutism is entirely due to autism spectrum disorder, it cannot be diagnosed as selective mutism.
Around 0.1 % of General population, have selective mutism. Incidence of the cases can be much higher.
In persons with selective mutism, some positive traits observed in many cases:
For example:
Above average intelligence, inquisitiveness, or perception.
A strong sense of right and wrong.
Creativity.
Love for the arts.
Empathy.
Sensitivity for other people.
No known cause exist of selective mutism, it is hypothesized that, it is inherited predisposition to anxiety. And can be caused by result of over-excitability of the area of the brain called the amygdala. This area receives indications of possible threats and sets off the fight-or-flight response.
In many cases, condition will not improve with age. So, Effective treatment is necessary.
Without treatment, selective mutism can contribute to chronic depression, further anxiety, and other social and emotional problems.
Regardless of the cause, increasing awareness and ensuring an accommodating, supportive environment are the first steps towards effective treatment. Most often affected children do not have to change schools or classes and have no difficulty keeping up except on the communication and social front.
stimulus fading is typically used with younger children because older children and teenagers recognize the situation as an attempt to make them speak, and older people with this condition and people with depression are more likely to need medication.
Some practitioners believe there would be evidence indicating anxiolytics to be helpful in treating children and adults with selective mutism.
Antidepressants have been used in addition to self-modeling and mystery motivation to aid in the learning process.
By Vinc3PaulS - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Both of my daughters have selective mutism but thankfully we caught it early and my eldest daughter has overcome the phobia with the correct support and help and we’re currently in the process now with my youngest daughter and also getting the right support for her now and things are all moving in the right direction she’s gradually starting to talk to 🙏🏼❤️💜
Hey what kind of support do you give youre daughters to treat selective mutism?
Curious to the “right” support you have in place for your daughter.
I wish there was more help for adults.
I developed selective mutism at 15 still at 34 suffering from it
I have selective mutism and i hate it 😭 (not elective)
Bruh same..
Yeah me too
@@Reputation13evermore My daughter has it. Are you on any meds that have helped?
@@prototypebharrat My daughter has it. Are you on any meds that have helped?
My daughter has it. Are you on any meds that have helped?
My niece has phobia when she was lock up in the comfort room of their school, she's 15 now and still can't speak.
I’ve had it for as long as I can remember and I’m 17 currently
Unfortunately, it just never goes away without treatment
I developed selective mutism at 15
Oh my goodness! A similar situation affected my son at age 10 when his selective mutism at school became elective at both home and school.
He’s about to be 12 and still not talking.
I have selective mutism from childhood but now I'm 16 it's getting more worst day by day .
same i’m 14 and ‘ve been struggling with getting worse being mute for longer amounts of time i hope you’re doing ok and getting better ❤️🩹
I started at around 7 and it totally broke me and my life in school however i realised that the more you expose yourself to people e.g strangers the more used you get to it and gradually its been phasing out and i feel like ive passed the worst of it. (Im 17 this year)
Same I am 13 now and I started having selective mutism around 10 or 11 and by to this day, I am suffering so much from it and I just wish to talk like others.
I’ve got selective mutism and it was perceived as shyness when I was younger but as I age, people definitely see it as rudeness… :/
My daughter has it. Are you on any meds that have helped?
i don’t think meds will help but maybe a good therapist would help although i hated my therapist since she forced me to talk
I have a cousin, hes autistic, he was so stressed out with what was going on in2020 while watching news, he stopped talking, what didnt help was he was sent to a school for the Deaf, long story short, I saw him this evening, and I was shocked he wasnt answering me, so I played him videos he used to love and play alot, thank God he spoke after 3 years, Aim is to make them comfortable and make their environment such they are used to, play things your little one once loved and repeated, I pray this helps
My daughter 5years have slective mutism. This condition is tratable?
I am 34 years old and I have suffered from selective mutism for around 10 years. I am slowly recovering now since I can speak to more people
I do have selective mustism..... does mutism after and emotional trigger is the same as selective mutism?