Selective Mutism

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Does anyone else have selective mutism in school or in certain classes?

I don't talk in class, unless a classmate or teacher asks me something. It's usually voluntary, so I answer a partial no.

When confronted with strangers and expected to interact with them, I find my brain flatlines and I have absolutely nothing to say - unless they ask me a direct question. I worked in a tattoo shop a few years ago, in which the owners blatantly discriminated against my disability because they wanted aggressive salesmen who would rush up to people as soon as they came through the door and push them to make choices. Not only do I feel that's unethical, where something so permanent and personal is concerned, its not in my Aspergian nature to behave that way. Once someone speaks to me, then I can respond with no problem, but even getting out a simple phrase like "Can I help you with something?" is almost impossible until they speak first.

From the age of 7, up to nearly 15 years old, I had selective mutism in school. Actually I had 6 occassionally whispered words, which were "Excuse me," "I;m sorry," and "Please stop." That was it.
I spoke at home despite the fact that the torture I endured there was worse than at school.
For my 13th or 14th birthday, I requested, and oddly enough received a cassette recorder. I recorded scripts from various plays, then made up my own plays, my own characters. Not long after that I bought a book that "changed my life"[seriously, the title and author are totally irrelevant and enormously embarrassing]
By practicing over the summer, by the time school resumed in the fall, I had found my voice.
Still was treated like crap most of the time though, but they gave different excuses. But anyway, that is how I finally broke 7 and a half years of mutism.