I wish people knew selective mutism isn't stubbornness or disobedience. It's an anxiety disorder that prevents you from speaking in "select" sitautions. It's not called elective mutism anymore because it's been acknowledged that the person effected isn't choosing to be mute. It's a freeze response. For me, it felt like the though-to-speech wire in my brain was being unplugged unless I was speaking to close friends or family. Before recovery, I couldn't have spoken even if it was an emergency.
This is such an important reminder! I don’t struggle with selective mutism myself - but it’s always horrible when people’s default response to you struggling with something “normal” is “they must be doing this on purpose just to annoy me!” cause that’s SO rarely the case. This world would be a much better place if more abled neurotypicals people would consider that the world doesn’t actually revolve around them - and that other people generally aren’t struggling severely with everyday stuff just to bother them!
