The Silent Treatment. I’m guessing that every spouse has given or gotten it at least once. It communicates a ton without saying a word, conveying things like anger, frustration, bitterness, manipulation, resignation, disappointment, and sorrow. But a long bout of the silent treatment can hurt a marriage and causes loneliness. The habitually silent spouse isolates the other, who becomes the lonely spouse.
If you’re the lonely spouse, suffering in silence, there is hope. Here are some things to understand and to do to encourage communication again. The causes can be complex and varied.
Assuming you can simply figure out what’s going on in your spouse’s head and heart can be counterproductive. If your spouse hasn’t explained the silence, your assumptions can cause defensiveness,
anger, and extended silence if you’re seen as oversimplifying or arrogant. This may seem simple, but misunderstandings and assumptions happen all the time in marriages,
hurting the couple. They may think the silence is golden, causing a false sense of peace, and not realizing that the silence is damaging your relationship.
