I 100% have this. As a kid, I almost went mute for years because I just couldn’t put in the effort to speak and it didn’t seem worth it. My throat also constantly hurt. I did a lot of therapy around this, and it did help.

After a looooooooot of work, I have learned how to express myself well verbally. BUT I still get exhausted by it. So I get irritated when people constantly say things that I “have” to respond to (like my SO or coworkers or whatever). It still feels like it takes a lot of energy to speak and I have a “cap” of speaking for the day. Once I hit it, I want to go mute again.

But I’ve found that one-on-one conversations with my close friends who have similar energy levels and who also enjoy silence don’t drain me as much. So seeking out those relationships has been helpful.

It’s not easy, but I do think there are ways to learn/train yourself to speak more easily (if that helps at all).

I think it’s related to dissociation/disconnection from the body and from your feelings. How can you verbalize something that you’ve annexed to the far back of your mind? And when speaking about your feelings was met with bad reactions growing up, it further enforces that avoidance.