It can include anything from ignoring texts and DMs to refusing face-to-face communications. The silent treatment is a form of social ostracization and a common tool used during conflict within many relationship types to inflict pain. It involves refusing to communicate with someone who is willing to communicate.
The silent treatment might be employed by passive personality types to avoid conflict and confrontation, while strong personality types use it to punish or control. Some people may not even consciously choose it at all.
In general, the silent treatment is a manipulation tactic that can leave important issues in a relationship unresolved. It also can leave the partner on the receiving end feeling worthless, unloved, hurt, confused, frustrated, angry, and unimportant.
If someone displays unmanageable emotions and easily flies off the handle, this is a serious red flag. Responding with uncontrollable rage or the "silent treatment" could point to abusive (physical or emotional) behavior in the future, says Trombetti.
By establishing boundaries, enforcing consequences if necessary, sharing emotions with others, and speaking up for yourself; you will take away their power, thus protecting yourself from the narcissist's silent treatment.
The silent treatment is a manipulative tactic that can be used in order to control a situation or person. It is often used as a way to punish someone for something that they have done in order to get them to change their behaviour.
If you've been bombarded with texts from a single person and never responded, it may be up to the texter to get the hint. Yup! You've got it. Ignoring someone is rude.
While you may know, rationally, that there are plenty of good reasons for someone not to respond to a text or an email—they're busy, they haven't seen the message yet, they're thinking about what they want to say—it doesn't always feel that way in a society where everyone seems to be on their smartphone all the time.
The receiver might think that the sender sends too many messages, has a lot of free time, calls or messages at wrong times, is annoying, etc. The receiver may also be offended by the sender and may purposely avoid or delay the response. Technology factors (device and messaging app) affecting non-response.
Silent treatment can be an immature way of dealing with situations and its practice should not be made a habit of. Imagine you have upset your loved one for some reason and they are angry with you.
A narcissist's silent treatment can last hours, days, weeks, or even months. If you are experiencing the silent treatment, it is very important that you don't give in to their manipulation and prepare yourself for the powerful manipulation tactics that they will use to end the silent treatment.
Narcissistic silent treatment is when a narcissist ignores and avoids interacting with you to punish, control, or communicate that they are unhappy with you.
Ignoring someone is not an act of love. In fact, silent treatment qualifies as abuse. The silent treatment sabotages you and your relationships by causing emotional trauma or stress, causing psychological stress, serious physical side effects, behavioral changes, and finally it can destroy relationships.
You've no doubt already guessed it, but in case you haven't yet, the silent treatment is a narcissist's go-to tactic when it comes to punishing their victims and taking control of them.
Refusing to do so can be a manipulative tactic. Ignores messages for days. Bills ex-wife would ignore his text messages about the kids for days but when she demanded immediate responses when she would text.
The narcissist texting style is such that it's all about them. In this case, examples of narcissist text messages could be “call me now,” “I'm amazing because I bought the groceries,” and “why aren't you calling me – did I do something wrong?
They want you to feel a sense of obligation or sympathy that they think will make them more likely to get what they want. The simplest example of this kind of emotional manipulation is the silent treatment, when someone punishes you by ignoring you.
They ignore you because they want to control you. One of the main reasons why a narcissist ignores you is that they want to control you. More likely, they want to regain control of you. A narcissist uses ignoring people as a way to punish them.
Such anxieties don't take long to surface. “On the receiving end of a message, receivers felt pressure to respond immediately or within a reasonable amount of time, typically between 20 minutes to the end of that day, to avoid breaking etiquette and offending the sender,” the paper concluded.
Psychologically speaking, there could be a number of things going on: They could be stressed and not able to think through a response right now. They may simply not know what to say. They could be thinking deeply about what to say and how to respond, as they believe you deserve that. They may need some space.
The good old silent treatment is one of the classic examples of playing games. Stonewalling is one of the ways to manipulate, control, and gain an upper hand in the relationship. Here are some examples: They give you monosyllabic answers like “okay,” “sure,” and “fine”
Being silent as a form of defence
If this happens often in your relationship it is likely that your partner finds it hard to be in touch with their own feelings of vulnerability. Their inability to look at themselves becomes a shield of self-defence and protection.
They often don't have the speed of words to compete with their partner in a conflict. Men's emotional processing capacity is often much slower than their partner. Whilst being silent is a sign of a man's need to process it is also a way to avoid the feelings of defeat.