Difficulty Speaking with Negative Emotions - Autism Related?

Going nonverbal is super super suoer common in autism. Theyre expensive but you can get text to speech mavhines and have stuff preprogrammed so you dont have to type it in the moment if u can help it.

definitely an autism thing, happens to me exactly the same way. i just open my phone and write in the notes app.

This happens with me a lot. I don't have any suggestions. Personally, I can only wait it out. It's like my system is on overload and has temporarily shutdown until it can process again. Sometimes I feel better if I go into a room by my self and close the door for a few minutes. I feel more free to process in the ways I need to and can calm more quickly, then can come back and let the person know I need to continue the conversation later. Anyone who knows me understands. If it's someone who doesn't, I might say I'm not feeling well (because I honestly am not at that point.)

Happens for me too! I got a text to voice app so I can just type what I want to say, it's super helpful!

have also experienced this. i believe the "traditional" experience of selective mutism in autism is more like "the person who only talks to certain trusted friends/family" but what you described is exactly how i've experienced my selective mutism. and it was definitely annoying for me in high school! i even had therapists and psychs refuse to see me again after episodes of mutism. the best solution i've found is to get engaged in a special interest - even better if you can get someone to ask you yes or no questions about it so you can nod in response. helps me build up to talking again, at least. other options include writing/typing until the episode passes, or in my case i've used asl fingerspelling since i learned it young (and it's pretty easy to learn too). you can often get willing friends or family to learn it as well so it saves as a sort of failsafe when the words won't happen. hope this helps!

I've had this happen to me, it's a perfectly normal part of autism for some people! I believe it's called selective mutism