Losing the ability to speak for short periods?

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I've noticed this happening whenever I have a meltdown or shut down. Once the actual melting or shutting down part is over, I'm usually laid up on my sofa or in bed for several hours, during which time I find it nearly impossible to speak. It's as if all my words get locked up inside my head and getting them from my brain to my mouth is excruciatingly difficult. Texting is okay, but the physical act of moving my mouth and making sounds come out is the hard part. And after sleeping, or just being alone, I'm fine. Does this happen to anyone else?

it happens on occasion to me when I experience overloads.

Yep. Happens to me all the time. It doesn't even have to be a meltdown or whatever that brings it on. Some days all I can do is nod or shake my head, mouth words and grunt yes and no, "uh huh" fashion. If someone presses me on it, I indicate I have a sore throat.

When I'm having a panic attack, I find it extremely difficult to speak. It takes incredible will-power to say anything.

I dunno... there's just... something in my head... preventing me from saying anything. It's as though I will just feel 100% worse if I say anything. I begin to hate the sound of my voice, the feeling of sound coming out. The fear of how people will react to what I say. Not knowing exactly what to say.

It's just this huge mix with a sprinkle of I don't know what the hell else.

But yeah it happens.

There is a similar thread here http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf228083-0-15.html
The thread is mainly about children but very interesting anyways.

Yeah, that happens. Shutdown will do it.
Strong emotions.
Being overwhelmed to the point of disorientation.
When something happens that I have to react to quickly, it can be like my brain freezes and I can just point and make sounds (nnng!)

Same here - 'erm'! Comes with a particular kind of overload - resolves after a few hours.
I am a priest - I try very hard not to get this kind of overload when in the middle of leading someone's funeral........

This. Happens to me a lot durring a meltdown

xxx

This happens to me when I feel overwhelmed by social situations (most of the time, unless it is someone I know very well). If I have to articulate too many thoughts at once, I just completely lose the ability to say anything coherent, and then I find I can't really speak at all. I'm usually so frustrated by this that I start to get emotional, possibly even start crying! This can be problematic depending on what the conversation is about.
For instance, I had to "fire" my son's therapist today because we have too many fundamental differences regarding parenting. Shutdown (at least I guess that's what it is) started to happen, and the coordinator I was talking to just assumed it was because the therapist had been so cruel to us that I was getting emotional about it! I had to email her later to clarify that she wasn't cruel, I was just incapable of speaking.

happens to me when I'm overloaded. Can last for days.

I can only recall it happening maybe a couple of times and only for very brief periods.

One time it was when I was being asked a loaded question where if I answered it would indicate that I agreed with the presumed outcome, and that wasn't true so I just "couldn't," speak for a minute or so - and then explained why I couldn't answer or say anything as there was no logical true answer to the question as it was asked.

I've noticed an AS friend of mine becomes non-verbal for equally brief periods when overwhelmed by social anxiety, especially at the thought of meeting someone new, but then it passes quite quickly and he's back to his normal self after I've agreed that meeting new people/being around more people isn't something he has to do at the moment and we can just hang out just the two of us.

Fortunately I've never had to go through this for hours or long periods. I know a few that had significant speech delay as children, and I wonder if they're more prone to becoming temporarily non-verbal as adults? Hmmm.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

[quote="gdgt"]This happens to me when I feel overwhelmed by social situations (most of the time, unless it is someone I know very well). If I have to articulate too many thoughts at once, I just completely lose the ability to say anything coherent, and then I find I can't really speak at all. I'm usually so frustrated by this that I start to get emotional, possibly even start crying! This can be problematic depending on what the conversation is about.
quote]

This is exactly whatstarted happeniingto me about 5 years ago. I don't know if it was changing hormones, or incresing stress (I'm betting on the stress), but I suddenly started getting overwhelmed, then silent, and then sometimes an annoying crying jag, which is VERY unlike me. Grrr.

It happens to me but more often it's speech avoidance. I can still get words out, but it's a challenge to gather my thoughts and express them verbally on top of it. It's like lifting a heavy weight, because it takes focused effort to get it out and make sure I'm communicating effectively on top of it.

I have tried to list different reasons for mutism in this thread but I did not consider the OP reason.

Feel free to better and add to the list