Childhood emotional abuse caused me to be practically mute. At the time I was in school there wasn’t the same understanding of mental illness that we have now, I assume that I would be offered special accommodations if I was a student today. I strongly dislike the question “what do you do”, because some people chose to treat people differently based on the perceived status of their occupation. I can think of literally thousands of jobs that don’t require public speaking myself. However I am a university educated stay at home mom at the moment. However I have worked in many retail stores, as a telephone technical support, and in a kitchen. That’s three jobs there that do not require you to stand up in front of 30+ people and do a presentation.