Selective Moutism: A Psychological Analysis

I went through eight years of school without saying a word to any other students or my teachers. I had been to multiple psychiatrist and psychologist as a child in elementary school, my mom had no idea why I wouldn't speak at all in school and honestly, I also had no idea as to why I wouldn't either - I just couldn't. After several appointments with many people, there wasn’t one who could figure why I wouldn’t talk either, I was even prescribed medications to try to help the situation. Since I was so young, I don’t remember having these appointments, except for one. I only remember one psychologist and she was the one who was able to say that I had selective mutism. Selective mutism is a childhood anxiety disorder where a child is unable to speak and communicate efficiently in social settings, which for me was school. …show more content…
I got questioned all the time such as, “do you not talk because you hate your voice?”, “is it because you don’t have a voice?”, or “are you scared to talk?”. I hated all the questions because I didn’t know how to answer them. In the fifth grade, I was on a medication to try to help me feel more comfortable with talking but apparently, it only made me giggle in class and I got in trouble for that which actually made my mom kinda mad because from her view it was did they want me to start little conversations and giggle or be a complete mute like I was before. It wasn’t until the seventh grade that I started talking to people in my class, not my teachers yet but the students. I had a close friend in that class who I hung out with out of school, we talked all the time but at school, not a word. Having her there in class with me made me feel more comfortable and that’s who I started talking to while in