Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, periods of going non speaking are very common for us as autistic people. You are not alone.
It must be very frustrating and upsetting for you currently. Mutism as a stress response is your autistic brain’s way of telling you that you need to reduce demands. Be kind to yourself and keep your environment as low arousal as possible and hopefully your speech will come back quicker.
You say that going out is problematic, do you have an I am autistic card? If you use this card you can quickly tell members of the public that you are currently non speaking and that you may need more time to compose answers to questions.
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/resources/downloads/i-am-autistic
I have this app, do you use the same one?
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/text-to-speech/id712104788
I hope this helps.
Also I forgot to answer the first question, occasionally I experience shutdown when stressed and cannot speak.
Yes I have an app and a card but still that doesn't make it any less stressful or reduce the anxiety...I want to speak so flashing my autism card and trying to type a response instead of talking isnt so nice..yes it gets me out the situation but still not ideal