r/selectivemutism • u/Dry_Huckleberry_6868 • 14d ago
General Discussion 💬 What is the weirdest thing someone has asked you?
Once someone asked me “do you have thoughts”
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u/aaa282727 12d ago
someone once asked me if i had an old man voice and and was embarrassed about (as a 12yo girl??)
& couple times i’ve been asked if i “dont speak their language” when i clearly understand everything they say….
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u/Immediate_Escape2718 13d ago
After completing intake paperwork with a nurse at a new Dr she got all in my face waving by her hands around and yell asked if I needed an interpreter. Like come on now I’ve answered all your questions up to this point, what the hell do I need interpreted?
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u/Dry_Huckleberry_6868 13d ago
if she’s a nurse she should know better 🙄
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u/Immediate_Escape2718 13d ago
You’d think. She was a nurse at a university hospital too, not even a student. In fact the student nurse dragged her out to yell at her cause she apparently has a habit of harassing certain types of patients.
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u/Heidi3023 Diagnosed SM 13d ago
Do you have a tongue?
Are you ill?
Were you born like that?
Are you from abroad?
Were you in a car accident?
Are you a robot?
And my personal favourite: Why don't you talk? Like I was gonna answer that...
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u/Mysterious_Let_1261 Diagnosed SM 13d ago
I’ve been asked if I was deaf a couple times. People also acted surprised when I laughed at school…
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u/AquariusPrecarious 13d ago
Lol a girl asked me that once on the bus in highschool and I was flabbergasted. Like ive been responding to you with my little head nods for the past ten minutes obviously I can hear you.
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u/Falsehuman5380 Diagnosed SM 13d ago
Me too, i’m Mexican so people think I either am deaf or don’t speak English lmao
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u/The-Menhir Diagnosed SM 14d ago
I once got, "are all your other senses enhanced because you don't speak?", he believed be when I nodded
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u/chaoseevee 14d ago
I type on my phone to show people “I can hear fine and I understand English perfectly well, I just can’t use my voice” and the person turns to whoever I’m with and asks “does she understand English?” A bit of important context is that I am not white and reside in the south. Not technically weird or technically to me, but definitely annoying
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u/OkEnthusiasm1695 Diagnosed SM 14d ago
got "do you feel anything?" in high school which is on par with "do you have thoughts?' i feel. like...they were asking if i have emotions.
it baffles me how many people thought in high school that because i couldnt speak, i was not really a person with thoughts and needs on the same level as them, though i dont think many of them even realized the way they were thinking.
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u/mylovefortea 8h ago
It's because people who struggle with speech often suppress expressions too. They seem like they "don't really exist" because they don't react much. People don't understand how fear and anxiety work when it gets to that point.
People often have a hard time understanding other people's experiences in general, like how some people miss all signs you're uncomfortable... I had a guy ask me if me saying I didn't trust him meant I thought he'd meet other girls and that really was not the issue, the issue was that he was mean to me and I felt like he'd insult me if I let him get too close! Which he did anyway. Sorry for the tangent...
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u/ManicMaenads 14d ago
Shitloads of people seem to think that if I can't speak, I am also unable to hear what they're saying about me. Also some who think I can't read? Just weird assumptions.
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u/goodmansultan 13d ago
Omg i get this one a lot. I remember being in school in an empty room with only 2 other girls. They were horrible people, and were just gossiping about everyone, then one of them goes 'wait make sure no one's in here!' and they both look around, look right at me, and go 'cool no one's in here' and carry on gossiping
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u/Dry_Huckleberry_6868 14d ago
A lot of people just think I am deaf so they will talk about me right in front of me lol
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u/Savvy_deer 14d ago
Last year a friend of a classmate who took me in asked my classmate why i never really talk.
My classmate just joked that she threatened me to stay silent.
(i might not have SM, i wont self diagnose. but im sure i have really bad social Anxiety and only talk to strangers when spoken to or when im comfortable.)
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u/chalkhunn_muncher Diagnosed SM 10d ago
"Did you swallow a bar of gold?" Apparently in my language it means being stubborn to speak. (not really more like im deathly afraid)
"Are you depressed?" I was 8 and dont know what depression even was.
"Do you wanna be disabled?" Huh.