How do you respond to the silent treatment?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys! So recently this weekend my boyfriend and I got into an Silly argument over text which ended in him getting extremely angry and me exclaiming that I don't want to fight, I love him and hope we can move past this to which he didn't reply. He ignored my text for several hours and so I texted him asking if I could call him to discuss it cause I didn't want either of us to be upset. He texted back that he didn't want to talk and so I just said sorry babe, love you and he hasn't replied for two days. How should I respond? What is the appropriate action when receiving the silent treatment? Why is he doing it in the first place?

[Kiran04]

I respond to the silent treatment by dumping whoever does it like a bad apple. I don't know about most of you, but I'm not in high school anymore. The silent treatment and ignoring is immature and rude. I get it, you're mad, but that isn't an excuse to treat me like garbage. I'm willing to make it up to you. I'll apologize. I'll buy you flowers. I'll give you space. I'll do all the house chores. I'll buy you dinner. I will NOT put up with bullsh*t that's completely unfair, however. Do you want me to give you the silent treatment when you do something that upsets me? If not, then grow the f*** up and talk to me. Talking fixes problems, not ignoring.

[toulouse]

;-) Yupp^

[Mrsupaakeru]

Continue ot ignore him until he contacts you back to discuss this, Actually contact him once more asking him to talk about this and then wait so he knows the lines of communication are still open. You made your move if he doesn't want to act like an adult ignore him and don't beg to be seen. He just wants attention and to make you feel bad. Wait for him to contact you for a reasonable time and then you may have to break up with him.

[Asker]

What of he contacts back pretending like there's nothing wrong?

[Mrsupaakeru]

Continue to talk about it. Explain your side and what you think happened. If there is no problem he should be able to talk a little about how he felt. If he doesn't talk much accept it. Go out. Interact if he acts mad or distant there's something still bothering him and ask him gently to open up. It's better if he talks about his problems but maybe you just have to get closer in your relationship

[Anonymous]

Give it right back to him, or just dump his sorry ass. He's playing with you, you offered a diplomatic solution but he doesn't want that. He wants you to be saying sorry to him. He wants you crawling back to him, this will set the trend for future disagreements btwn the two of you. If you really want to be with this man, DO NOT give him that power, it will surely wreck your relationship or make it unbearable.

[Freetobe007]

Act like I dgaf *even if I do* and show them how much fun I can have without them, secretly hoping it will make them miss being in my ompany.

In your situation, your boyfriend needs to grow the f*ck up. Unless you cheated or did something really grimy like slept with his brother, he should not be ignoring you like that. He's probably trying to make you feel guilty.

[toulouse]

Was the argument really silly, or you decide its not worth losing him, to care about the issue?

sonds like he's very controlling and has little respect for u.

you should be able to discuss problems. and someone being angry does not mean you're supposed to apologize.

what was the fight even about?

[bel42]

Just ignore him and move on with your life. He's being very immature.

[native65]

It's a head game... He wants to show he can be without you, and if you want him back you will have to work for it. And he wants to train you, so you don't go there again, you now know what's waiting for you... You have to flip it on him. But you will have to be ready to end it right there and then. He sounds like he'll call your bluff. This one has balls of steel! Good luck with that one!

[Konnour]

Retaliate with the same.

If you're the one who suffers from silent treatment, never break the silence first. "The offender" always must be the one who ends the silence, if he/she won't do it... then just find someone else/move on

...and that's because - if you will break it first, you will be lashed in chains, you will have no power in the relationship, it shows that you desperately want to be together despite receiving bad treatment and thus the bad treatment will continue.

[posted]

What was this over..? Did you start doing one of the worst things and also start picking at his flaws when you got mad?

[ThatBritishLad]

Swing my arms and shout "BAKERY. BAKERY. BAKERY" D:

... I don't think anyone will get that one, because I barely understand it myself :/

[Jaren]

yeah we'll need to know what the argument was over

[Asker]

We had a date planned Friday night but his friends ended up tagging along which was actually fine, however he focused most of his attention on them the whole night. I brought it up to him the day after saying I felt a bit abandoned that night and he got extremely angry saying he couldn't have done anything differently, the rest is above :)