Selective Mutism Quotes

“I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.”
― Herta Müller, The Hunger Angel

“Aloneness – that is what SM feels like to me. Isolated, alone, separated, left out as I silently stand by watching others experience life while the words freeze inside me, afraid to speak up or join in a conversation. Actually feeling the anxiety shaking inside my chest as I try to get up the courage to speak to someone or call or text a friend. SM feels like the child standing alone behind the door watching the other kids in the playground – afraid to ask, 'may I play?' It feels like the teenager standing silently against the wall, listening to classmates laugh and chat, invisible to everyone and wondering what it would be like to have a friend. It feels like the 50-year-old office worker, alone in her cube while others chat and laugh in the aisle, still left out. I live inside a shell, a mask that looks like me, but isn't me. I am in here, but it is really hard to let others see. I'm so grateful for the few dear friends I have now. Most people, though, only see the shell and assume I'm aloof and uncaring because I am quiet. I feel very deeply. I feel others' joy and pain intensely, yet they rarely know. I'm not quiet because I am uncaring. I'm silent because I'm afraid.”
― Carl Sutton, Selective Mutism In Our Own Words: Experiences in Childhood and Adulthood

“I was a prisoner inside my own body. I felt desperate, angry, stupid, confused, ashamed, hopeless and absolutely alone... and that this was of my own making. I could speak at home, how come I couldn't outside it? I have never been able to find the right words to describe what it was like. Imagine that for one day you are unable to speak to anyone you meet outside your own family, particularly at school/college, or out shopping, etc., have no sign language, no gestures, no facial expression. Then imagine that for eight years, but no one really understands. It was like torture, and I was the only person that knew it was happening. My body and face were frozen most of the time. I became hyperconscious of myself when outside the home and it was a relief to get back as I was always exhausted. I attempted to hide it (an impossible task) because I felt so ashamed that I couldn't do what other people seemed to find so natural and easy - to speak. At times I felt suicidal.”
― Carl Sutton, Selective Mutism In Our Own Words: Experiences in Childhood and Adulthood

“Destiny is not always preordained. Life is about making choices. Our lives are the sum of all the choices we make, the bridges we cross, and the ones we burn. Our souls cast long shadows over many people, even after we are gone. Fate, luck, and providence are the consequence of our freedom of choice, not the determinants. When justice is served by following our principles, making good decisions brings us inner peace.”
― Judith Land, Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child

“As a teenager and young adult, I found being mute intensely isolating and dehumanizing. I felt truly like I was just a pair of eyes and ears - an entity without a body, without a face, and without a mouth. I felt as though I was barely a physical being.”
― Carl Sutton, Selective Mutism In Our Own Words: Experiences in Childhood and Adulthood

“It’s amazing how few words a person can get by with.”
― Christina Collins, After Zero

“Kind, open and non-judgmental people do not "mutate" me as I like to call it, and these are the people I do want to be around.”
― Rudy Simone, Aspergirls

“The trick is twofold: increase your self-confidence, and also, seek out the good in others, find whatever aspect of them you resonate with, no against.”
― Rudy Simone, Aspergirls

“And we simply sat in silence”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

“Anyone could tell Perry didn't want to talk. Griffin himself wasn't a boy who talked a lot; he did much more thinking than talking. Maybe Perry was a thinking kind of boy too.”
― Glenda Millard, Perry Angel's Suitcase

“He didn't mind Layla talking to him. He liked the way she talked without expecting an answer.”
― Glenda Millard, Perry Angel's Suitcase

“Letting words out,
saying them out loud
would lighten the pain,
lighten my sorrow,
make me happy again.
I will stop missing Amma,
stop loving her.

No . . .
that will never do.

So I lock them within me,
afraid to open my mouth
lest the hurt, the love, the memories
fly and fade away
like birds on the horizon.”
― Ranjeeta Raam