I want to be mute for a while

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I feel like when I was little I was forced to speak right (speech therapy), and I want to spend some time not bothering to talk. I don't know. I want to just listen and be there, invisible. I live with my mom I don't know what she would do. I go to psychiatric outpatient groups and lead an art therapy group. So I am forced to talk. I want to live in my own strange world alone for a while.

Others might have different advice but I would say to try and express those feelings as best you can to the various people that need to know and then just do it. Maybe if there is a lot of resistance from your environment you could agree to a time period, say 10 days? Or patches of the day which are silent. I know this is slighiy diffent but my friend went to a silent retreat for a few weeks and said it was amazing. You were not allowed to make eye contact either to disturb or break people's internal processing. Once my children need me less, I am going to treat myself to a period of silence.

Maybe you could lead the art therapy group in silence? People take vows of silence all the time for religious reasons, there is no reason it should not be respected. I have always found there are many times when we are so used to the "normal" way to interact that we don't entertain the notion that there are equally valid alternatives. I bet not speaking for a while if that is what you feel you need might lead you to lots of diffent discoveries.

Rebecca

As long as nobody is using extortion or bribery to make you talk, if you do not want to talk, you do not have to talk.

Extroverts sometimes act like "i talk, therefore I am". Just like Descartes "I think, therefore I am"

A former precious lil "friend" had the nerve to tell me that "you wear your pants around your knees", "you bit the sticker off the apple", "you walk around all hunched over", ""you wiped your mouth with your sleeve"

Each statement contained the enthusiasm of "look at this iPhone that I invented"

The speaker acted like, she was a sports announcer and I was a football game

"Actions speak louder than words"

"Loose lips sink ships"

Having said that, there are specific situations where talking is the best or only method of communication

You could avoid or minimize the situations

Or those situations could be the exception

Carry a pen and paper and write down things for someone

I wouldn’t make it being mute.

I failed sign language in college.

You and me both. I don't get why some people just feel the need to talk so much!

I have regular days where total utter silence is my best friend.

Sometimes I think I would like this. Just quiet time by myself, get rid of an extra process I have to watch all the time. It can be frustrating though when you do need to communicate. I do go mute when very distressed, but part of me would like to do it without having to be very upset lol.

I had vocal cord surgery six days ago, and have been mute since then while I wait for my voice to return. It's been an interesting experience. I have an AAC app on my tablet that I've been using to communicate with my friends and at work, and it's taught me a lot about the cheapness of words and how people are so used to saying everything that jumps into their head. It takes me thirty seconds or more to type out a single sentence, so I'm much more conscious of the things that I really need to say, versus what would just be noise or take up space needlessly. It gets frustrating at times, because people converse so quickly that when I have something I want to say, by the time I get it written out, the conversation has moved on. I have taught those around me to slow down and wait though. They'll say something, then pause for the length of time it takes for me to generate a response. It's been a very unique experience.

I'd say try easing into it. That way you and others will get used to it better.

I'm mainly nonverbal and get along pretty well just using gestures.

Texting being a big thing even among the verbal helps a lot too.

For me, it's just more natural to express myself without speaking. I understand where you're coming from. Speech is like a second language to me.

If it weren't for all the noisy NTs in my life thinking I'm having a heart attack every time I stop talking I wouldn't talk at all. It's just so much easier not having to translate everything into speach. Some days I'm just too exhausted or overloaded to even try.

Don't give up any obligations just yet but just be honest. If you are autistic and they know then just tell them that it's making talking difficult at the moment. Perhaps learn some basic ASL eg. Fingerspelling, please, thank you, water, bathroom, etc. These come in handy from time to time.

Also consider getting a small dry-erase board or notebook to carry around.