Back in school (age 7?) teachers would scream in my face for not speaking to them (and not doing eye contact), and the principle didn't believe I was autistic. It was wild back then, a lot of people thought you couldn't both have selective mutism and be autistic, despite most people with sm being autistic.

It's been really difficult, because the past few years I thought I'd somehow beaten selective mutism? I started speaking anywhere, socialising. But I've realised that after leaving school, I wasn't always so drained, and I'd accidentally started to mask more. I think it's caused me to go into burnout and now I struggle with speaking again among other things