Yes words can really hurt you.
Although words cannot hurt you physically or injure you the words can hurt you emotionally and put you into a pretty depressing state of mind.
I used to get made fun of a lot as a kid in school because I have high functioning autism and had selective mutism as well.
I was pretty shy and would only whisper to the teachers in class and I always got made fun of.
Still today I will only talk to people I want too although I no longer whisper to them.
I used to get called bad names, laughed at in a bad way and taunted and teased in bad ways as well a lot.
I still do sometimes get taunted by some teens even though I'm an adult now.
I have learned to ignore them now but still the words they say do hurt me emotionally.