Life Stories

My name is Georgie, and I was recently diagnosed with selective mutism at 26 years old. When you’re an identical twin, people are quick to want to categorise you. I was born second, which can be interpreted in different ways based on mythological accounts of twinship. Some people see it as an indication of being […]

Sometimes I wish I could just go back in time to when selective mutism wasn’t in control of my life. Up until I was 5 years old, I could talk freely, and my parents even used to say that I was a chatterbox, but as soon as I started primary school, something changed. It was […]

Time Ticks On A very powerful poem about Selective Mutism, written by one of our members who wishes to stay anonymous. Read by Sadiqa Ismail.

Selective Mutism has almost always been a part of my life since I was around 6 years old. I used to hardly be able to speak to anyone, only my friends and my parents and my grandparents and my dog. I could barely even speak to any of the teachers, so I couldn’t ask for […]

Below is a link to the blog ‘Diary of a Selective Mute – My experiences living with selective mutism and social anxiety’. Diary of a Selective Mute Shared with permission from the blog owner.

Imagine you are on the bus and not sure where to get off, imagine you are unable to ask anyone to help you. Imagine you got lost somewhere, imagine you cannot ask passers-by for directions. Imagine you want to go to the cinema but you are unable to say that you would like to buy […]

I am 23 and I was diagnosed with Selective Mutism about 20 years ago. Initially, my mum worked on techniques with me at home, in conjunction with support from professionals. These techniques were gradually brought into the school environment and public places, where the anxiety would be higher and speech would be less forthcoming. Although […]

by Matt Holdback As far as I was aware I had a pretty normal childhood, we started off just me and my older brother who is about 18 months older than I am. Then about 3 years later my younger sister arrived and everything was great, the perfect family. We lived in a nice big […]

by Lindsay Whittington, Co-ordinator and founding member of SMIRA Looking Back 35 years. It’s a long time, but that’s how long my involvement with selective mutism has been, both as a parent and through my work with SMIRA. My daughter was just 18 months old when, on reflection, the problem started to show. She had […]

Hi, my name’s James, it’s July 2013 and I’m 23 years old. This is the first time I’ve ever put my thoughts on selective mutism into words. I realise this won’t be the same for everyone; this is simply my own view of it. I’d like to share my story. I’m not sure of all […]