If you are among those who can talk confidently with your family members but face anxious moments when it comes to expressing in a social gathering, you might be suffering from what is known as selective mutism.
In this post, we list ways of handling selective mutism in adults and it shall help you overcome this problem.
Stimulus Fading Away
This is one of the best ways to handle selective mutism in adults and get over this problem. In it, a conversation can be initiated with someone whom you trust and know well. They can be from your family or from close friend circle. Once you have initiated this talk and got deep into it, it is the time to bring in new person.
While the new person would remain quite for a while, he or she will chip in with their thoughts a while later. It might happen that you would get comfortable to talk with the unknown person too. Now, your friend or family member will leave the conversation and you would be talking to someone whom you barely know and have met first time.
This way your confidence will grow and things will get easy for you. This technique can be tried with a group of adults too and with time, you shall realize that the problem of selective mutism will go away.
Talking Alone
This is another way of getting rid from the problem of selective mutism in adults. In this, you could practise speaking loudly in a closed room. As you would be alone, it will give you confidence. To make things better, you can also write the details of what you intend to speak on a piece of paper. As you gain confidence with time, you can ask someone from your close circle to sit along in the room and listen to what you say.
Then try to practise the same alone in an open ground. Slowly as time passes, you will see that you will gain confidence enough to speak in front of others and slowly you would be in a position to talk loudly in front of others in a group too.
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Texting and Email
Texting and email is also another viable way of handling selective mutism in adults. You can send what you feel through text messages too. However, the limitation in text message is that it can be brief only.
In cases when you require to share your thoughts in a bit detail, email is a worthy means. This way you can freely express about what you feel and how it needs to be handled.
The problem of selective mutism in adults can be cured through a combination of all the above listed means and you can also try using any of these for an extended period so that you are able to overcome this problem.
With time, you will see that you will gain confidence and the problem of selective mutism will get cured too.
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