"The worst punishment you can give someone you love is your silence. When couples fight, they may shout at each other, cry, storm off to another room to find space, or even take a day or two to cool off before speaking to each other again. But then there's the " silent treatment." You disappoint your partner in some way, and rather than responding, they shut down. You call 10 times, but they won't answer."
"This isn't about needing time to work through intense emotions or to sort out thoughts, because that's normally conveyed. It's about watching your partner suffer, knowing they are hurting, and feeling a sense of control over them. That's where silent treatment crosses the line into unhealthy relational behavior. Silent treatment often flies under the radar as "harmless," and many people catch themselves excusing their partner's behavior."
Silent treatment involves shutting down communication and refusing to acknowledge a partner after a hurtful incident, leaving the other person ignored and distressed. The behavior differs from taking time to process emotions because it intentionally causes suffering and asserts control. Common excuses normalize the behavior, such as blaming the other person or attributing silence to longstanding habits. Research finds silent treatment is primarily punitive and threatens sense of belonging, self-esteem, sense of control, and meaningful existence. The person delivering silence may feel diminished belonging yet gains perceived control over the partner. Distinguishing safe processing silence from manipulative silence is essential.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]