Meg is a 14 yr old girl from Ohio. She wrote this letter In July '05 after the realization that she no longer has Selective Mutism. She wants to share this story with others. This letter was written to Sweet 16 Magazine.
Meg's hope is that all children and teens suffering from Selective Mutism and 'caught in their silence' will realize that with hard work and the will to overcome Selective Mutism, They can do it! Meg is true testimonial to that!
The Day I Got Over My Selective Mutism
Dear Sweet 16 Magazine,
Ever since I was in preschool, I have been mute for most of my life in social settings. My parents have been trying to help me for what seemed like ages to find out why I wasn’t talking in certain settings. Through the years, they’ve consulted many people about why I was mute in those social settings. Every time they consulted someone about it, they got the wrong advice and handled it in the wrong way. Finally, about a year and a half ago, my mom and dad finally searched on the internet and found that I had something called selective mutism. That meant I was literally too anxious to speak in social settings. Back in September 2004, my mom and I started seeing an expert on selective mutism named Dr. Shipon-Blum (Dr. E). Every month she would give me a certain goal to work towards. Some of the things I’ve done were to order pizza, and calling stores to see if they had a certain item that I wanted. I’ve done so well with most of those things, and recently, my dad and I went to a conference about selective mutism in Houston. I made a lot of progress at the conference and talked to some of the adults there. Some of the people said things about me like, “Does this girl really have selective mutism?” Well, by that time, I technically didn’t have selective mutism anymore. Later that same month in July 2005, my whole family went for our last visit to see Dr. E, and it felt good to know that we didn’t need to go see her anymore.
Then, on Monday, my family and I went to Hershey Park in Hershey Pennsylvania. Who knew that I would get over my selective mutism on that day? I didn’t know I would. I rode some roller coasters of course, that day, but the best part was that I got to sing karaoke and record my own CD to keep. I begged my mom and dad to let my sister Lila and I do karaoke together. They finally said okay. Lila and I sang karaoke to the Hilary Duff song “Fly.” It felt so good that I could do that. Lila and I each got a copy of the CD of us singing “Fly.” Later that day, I went back to the karaoke studio and I sang karaoke by myself to the Hilary Duff songs “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean.” It felt so good that I could do that by myself. Most selective mutes wouldn’t be able to do that at all. I hope that someday, the other kids out there with selective mutism will gain the courage that I had that day, to be a brave enough person to sing karaoke at an amusement park and have the CD be played over the loudspeaker.
Yours truly, Meg Greco