I know I used to feel that way all the time.....but I also know that when I was saying things before that I felt I wanted people to hear, I wasn't actually speaking up so they could even really hear me.....I always spoke so softly that no one would hear what I said in the first place....because of lack of confidence that what I had to way had any value in the first place & also because I heard my father talking really stupid stuff all my life growing up & I never wanted to end up sounding like him so I was afraid to speak out for fear I would make a fool out of myself the way I felt my dad made a fool out of himself even though I had valuable things to say.

I would fight on an individual basis with my parents or with my H for things that I felt needed to be heard but I would NEVER do it out with other people or in a group.....it's only been in the last 8 years, after I was 54 years old that I was able to speak up & actually have people listen to what I have to say.....it almost scared me the first time it happened & I almost forgot what I was trying to say when everyone started to listen....but my confidence has grown over the years......I just make sure that I don't talk over others & choose the right time to speak out & if I accidentally speak when someone else is saying something, it seems that the people I'm around now always come back to what I had to say......

OK...that brings up the point.....if you have people surrounding you who don't RESPECT your opinion or thoughts.....they aren't going to bother wanting to listen in the first place.....I found that to be true for me....it wasn't until I was finally surrounded by people who care & who respect me as a person that they are willing to listen to what I have to say....& that took leaving my bad marriage of 33 years.....my parents died & I moved 2100 miles away to a place where I didn't know anyone....& I started life fresh.....& it was like starting over & gave me a chance to earn the respect of those around me without the preconceived notions that existed before...but then I was married to a guy & we had no social contacts......figured out only after I had left him 7 years that all those years I was dealing with someone who had Asperger's so I understand now why communicating with him was so impossible & why we had no social life for all those years.

Also if you don't have confidence in that what you have to say is valuable & have been beaten down for years....you are being conditioned to NOT speak up & it will only get worse unless you force yourself to be heard.....take it from a 62 year old who struggled with that all my life. It's possible to break out of the pattern that's being formed but it takes work & for me it took leaving the environment I was living in because it was never healthy but I couldn't escape until I finally did.