Are there any cases of adults who stopped talking?

If so, what were the reasons behind it? and where can I find case studies about this or further information? I have tried looking on google, etc but i don't really know where to begin or what to google, so i haven't found much info. Any help would be greatly appreciated!Are there any cases of adults who stopped talking?
Hi





You need to search for adult mutism.





It can occur rarely in some severe cases of psychiatric illness.





Post traumatic stress disorder can cause mutism and so can very severe bouts of clinical depression.





Dont get mutism confused with the inability to talk due to organic disease/stroke etc.





If you are dealing with a mute person, I can offer some advice if you would like to contact me.Are there any cases of adults who stopped talking?
Yes......me and the ex !!! haha.when I was at school we had a real bright pupil in our classroom.He actually squared the circle with a different theory to the known one and it was proven by mathematicians at the time.He was very very good and very clever.A few years later he developed a speech problem,not actually stopped talking but had a real difficulty been understood as he was mumbling quite a bit.
Adults could become mute as the result of physical injury to the vocal chords, or specific regions of the brain associated with speech, or, less commonly, as the result of a mental illness.





I think it's fairly self-explanatory how physical injury or diseases of the vocal chords, throat, lungs, etc. could prevent speech, since the physical structures needed to produce speech simply don't work properly.





Loss of the ability to produce or comprehend language due to brain injury (including strokes) is called aphasia. You can read more about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphasia


It can also occur from damage due to a progressive neurological disorder, rather than a one-time traumatic injury.





Failure to speak in specific situations where speech is expected, without a physical cause, in a person who's fully capable of speech, is called selective mutism. Selective mutism almost always begins in childhood, although it is sometimes seen as a response to a traumatic experience, so I supposed it could theoretically appear in an adult who spoke normally as a child. Since children typically respond somewhat differently to trauma than adults do, and selective mutism is seen almost exclusively in children, my guess is that if it were to occur in an adult in response to trauma, it would probably be most likely in people with significant developmental delays or pre-existing major mental illness.





I'm not sure about other mental illnesses that might be associated with it, but I would imagine that it could occur with something like schizophrenia, if the person had a delusion that required them not to speak.





You could try seaching for something like 'adult mutism' or 'adult speech pathology.' Also, for case studies, you could try similar sets of search terms on PubMed or Google Scholar.
Hi there Jellybab,





You didn't finish your question. ';Are there any cases of adults who stopped taking ? I would like to assume that you mean stopped talking meds for mental illnesses?





Anyway, here goes even if this is not a genuine question or properly interpretated.





Is it possible to stop meds for various mental illnesses?





It may be possible at least in the short-term. There have been some self-reports of persons who claim to have manifested symptoms of mental illness, who say they/ve stopped talking meds some cold-turkey with little of no side-effects. However I have never personally observed directly such efficacy (capacity) of persons certainly not among adults in the last 15 + years of my involvement with serious mental health or mild mental health conditions. The long-term success of such efforts remain to be determined so any claims of a 'complete cure' for mental illness apart from pharmacological/drug therapy still should be treated with skepticism. This may be a weakness of the current psychiatric/psychological practise and where possible such claims need to be investigated scientifically, both in the short-term and over time. Nevertheless such personal self-reports should not be completely discounted either in the present day scenario or future given possibly greater information and available treatement options later on.





If you are considering stopping your meds please remember


the possibility of:





Intense withdrawl symtoms, like vomiting, excessive sweating, frequent excretion of faeces, disturbing dreams,etc. (see the net for further information of withdrawl symptoms).





If however you are able to outlast such reactions even if it takes several months or even a year for your nervous system to settle down you may find it possible to stop and at least rediscover your true self before the illness took hold and before medication began.





Please however do continue to seek psychiatric/medical advice in any attempt to discontinue meds over either the short or long term. How your nervous system including the brain functions without medication must be addressed. If meds are just supressing your illness, you most likely will have to contiue talking them as a preventative measure even if all your negative symptoms have subsided. This is the responsible attitude given the current state of knowlege in psychiatry/psychology today.(There is no shame in this)





Hope I have answered the question you were trying to ask.





God bless.





Barry H





Please note however that neurotic conditions (like anxiety and depression) have a better prognosis (predicted outcome) than psychotic conditions (which can include both delusions/false beliefs and hallucinations/false perceptions).
Brain operations, shock after being in or witnessing a bad accident.
People can often stop talking as the result of major trauma and when I say trauma I don't mean physical, I mean mental. Take Josie Russell, the young girl who witnessed her Mum, suster and dog be beaten to death my some wierdo. She didn't speak for years because of the shock and inability to express how she felt. I think she speaks now but I know that for a very long time she didn't utter a word. Not sure if this has helped but good luck.
hi i do when I'm really depressed it's called elective mute last time i didn't speak for over a month the more depressed i get the softer spoken i become until i withdraw into myself it's like there is so much pain if i put it in words it will make it real to start with and then i get to a stage that i feel like my brain has died and I'm just waiting for the body to join it. sometimes there seems no point in talking because nobodies going to listen anyway (I've got bpd) all my life nobody has been interested in what i have to say so when things are bad somehow i cant verbalize it so i become mute


hope this helps