Evan Urquhart

Something I find interesting is how there's so much popular understanding of psychology, but it's very focused around certain symptoms and disorders and not others. For instance, everyone knows about panic attacks, almost no one knows about mutism.

Selective mutism is a severe anxiety response, like panic attacks. It begins in childhood and is characterized by an inability to speak in anxiety provoking situations (often school). In extreme cases it can worsen to the point of a person losing all speech.

If selective mutism had a cultural moment, all sorts of people who aren't selectively mute would begin to believe they were, and mild cases of selective mutism would begin to be identified, and it would be hard to tell the difference.

There would be more understanding and accommodation for adults and children who were selectively mute, and there would likely also be an increase in stigma, disbelieving people, thinking people were faking.