My mother and me.

I'm a 16 year old boy, who, up until recently was quite shy. Now, as I grow older, I find myself coming out of my shell, and have gained confidence at speaking to my adults, something a 13 year old me was terrified of. However, one adult is exempt from this rule: My mother.

WHen I was 6 my mum and dad split up. He now lives in MAllorca, and honestly, I don't feel anything for this situation. I'm not sad now, and I don't remember being sad back then either. When I do go to see my father, I have trouble talking to him too, though it's still a lot easier than talking to my mother, whom I live with.

It's not that I don't want to. I love my mum. She provides for me and my brother, but I know I upset her when I respodn with one word answers. This isn't because I don't want to talk to her, as I've said, but because I feel I physically can't. Something stops me form sayign anything to her. Everytime she starts a conversation, my mind goes blank, I struggle to piece together a sentence without awkward pauses in between words, and I find it hard to make eye contact with her, something I can do with relative ease among my peers and mentors.

Recently, I've been toying with the idea that I might have some kind of mild form of autism, but I feel that, if this was indeed the case, the problem wouldn't be limited to my mother. This leads me to believe it's something more psycological, which is why I'm posting here. What can I do about this. I don't want her to be sad. But please remember, this isn't a simple case of me makign an effort, I am physically unable to say anything more than an "ok".