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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is sulking ever induced?

29 replies

Allaboutme23 · 18/05/2024 00:04

Just having a moment here. Here I have been thinking that I can not go rest of my days with DP as his huge o sulks drain the life out of me when I have really thought, maybe I did induce The Almighty Sulk. I did say a week ago that I was drained by his sister's shit stirring ways and him not putting boundaries in place to prevent this and maybe this is no wonder that he has not spoken to me in 7 days and nights and still counting.

Maybe these sulks over the years have been triggered by my confrontational behaviour and I should know that not speaking is therefore reasonable due to my unreasonableness. ]

Is sulking ever reasonable at all due to mitigating circumstances? Oh and a bit of binge drinking.? A.I.B U for not just keeping peace, put up shut up, therefore inciting the need for his solitude, alcohol and remaining mute going into week 2?

He has never said where he disappears during sulk. Is this unreasonable of me to wander? Maybe I am very dislikeable and do not know myself due to the impact of sulks but I should be questioning what are my triggers to him? Holy cow it could have been me all this time when I thought that he was being unreasonable?

OP posts:
Yousassychav · 18/05/2024 00:06

How can someone not speak to their partner for 7 days straight? How is that even possible?

I'd leave him.

cryingoverjurgen · 18/05/2024 00:10

Please do not think you deserve this treatment- leave and get a happier life

MysteriousKor · 18/05/2024 00:12

Well, you’re unreasonable to think you’re forcing someone to sulk! When you say ‘disappear’, do you mean he literally vanishes for a week and you don’t know where he is, or metaphorically?

Scribblydoo · 18/05/2024 00:13

Sulking is his choice. I certainly don't pander to my 5 year old when she's got the hump so don't for your husband. It's a very childish attempt to control you.

I'd let the Incredible Sulk get on with it and plan my exit strategy.

SherlockHomies · 18/05/2024 00:17

Maybe these sulks over the years have been triggered by my confrontational behaviour and I should know that not speaking is therefore reasonable due to my unreasonableness.

He has never said where he disappears during sulk. Is this unreasonable of me to wander? Maybe I am very dislikeable and do not know myself due to the impact of sulks but I should be questioning what are my triggers to him? Holy cow it could have been me all this time when I thought that he was being unreasonable?

Yeah but you know that's bullshit so why even bother typing it out?

It's him, not you. Not that you need telling.

Pallisers · 18/05/2024 00:17

he has certainly done a number on you. No, you don't deserve seven straight days of silent treatment just because you raised a concern about his sister.

Read this article from The Atlantic if you can. Your husband wants to inflict pain on you. 7 days not speaking isn't sulking - it is abuse. I think you would be far happier elsewhere OP.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Do the Silent Treatment
It can ruin your relationships.

By Arthur C. Brooks

Life for a 19th-century sailor was hard: Months at sea were accompanied by constant danger and deprivation. To make matters worse, mariners saw the same few people all day, every day, in a radically confined space where they were expected to get along and look after one another. On a long voyage, one obnoxious person could make life utterly miserable for everyone.

So sailors used a tried technique to deal with an offender: the silent treatment. They would ignore him completely for weeks on end. That might sound like an innocuous action to you, but in truth, it was far from it. The silent treatment was, according to the writer Otis Ferguson in 1944, “a process so effective in the monotony of ship’s life as to make strong men weep.”

Of course, the silent treatment is a technique used not only by sailors. It can be encountered anytime, anywhere, from home to work. You have almost certainly experienced some form of it. Being subjected to the silent treatment is a lament I commonly hear from others, on whom it is imposed by romantic partners, parents, friends, colleagues.

Long-married couples will go for days without speaking. A person will give their oldest friend the cold shoulder. I knew a father who refused to speak with his daughter for 30 years. Silent-treatment inflictors do it because, as the sailors discovered, it was devastatingly effective in imposing pain on the recipient. So much pain, in fact, that it can leave a person scarred and a relationship in ruins.

Scunnered2024 · 18/05/2024 00:21

I could never be with anyone who sulks, it’s childish behaviour imo. I don’t think this is sulking though, it’s abusive behaviour and no-one should have to put up with it nor question their worth because their partner has chosen to punish them by not speaking to them.

Maybe these sulks over the years have been triggered by my confrontational behaviour

This isn’t you, it’s your partner and as I said earlier it’s abusive behaviour. You have every right to have conversations with your partner and confront them on issues you don’t agree with. Any normal adult talks about issues, they don’t sulk.

PanicAttax · 18/05/2024 00:37

Sulking is often witholding of emotional connection. People think it is about the person "processing" but just as often it is used to make the atmosphere so uncomfortable that the person being targeted gives in. Sulking over extended time periods is actually stonewalling and is one of the harbingers of doom in relationships https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-stonewalling/#:~:text=Metaphorically%20speaking%2C%20they%20build%20a,or%20engaging%20in%20obsessive%20behaviors.

The Four Horsemen: Stonewalling

Rather than confronting the issue, Stonewalling occurs when the listener shuts down because they feel overwhelmed or physiologically flooded.

https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-stonewalling#:~:text=Metaphorically%20speaking%2C%20they%20build%20a,or%20engaging%20in%20obsessive%20behaviors.

Saschka · 18/05/2024 00:42

If it’s you, he shouldn’t stay married to you.

If it’s him, you shouldn’t stay married to him.

Regardless of who’s at fault, this sounds like an absolutely miserable way to spend the next thirty years.

Lurkingandlearning · 18/05/2024 00:57

When he disappears he is probably at his sister’s giving her more information that she can use for shit stirring in future.

Have yourself a big old sulk and don’t speak to him ever again. Dump him

Zanatdy · 18/05/2024 01:07

Yousassychav · 18/05/2024 00:06

How can someone not speak to their partner for 7 days straight? How is that even possible?

I'd leave him.

My ex didn’t speak to me for 6wks once. Hence he’s an ex

5YearsLeft · 18/05/2024 01:40

No, @Allaboutme23 .

Sulking is never reasonable. You haven’t stated you are a woman (though that’s likely), but if you were a man in a gay relationship or a man in a relationship with a woman (obviously not this since you call your partner “he”), I would give exactly the same advise.

Sulking is emotional abuse. It’s refusing to communicate in a respectful way. If someone is so upset with a partner’s actions that they’ve decided they no longer wish to communicate, then the respectful thing to do is to leave. What you do not do is subject your partner to emotional abuse because you can’t find a way to agree.

If this were physical abuse, there would be no question; of course he has to go. Emotional and verbal abuse are insidious in a different way, though. And that’s what sulking is, which is why no one should ever do it to someone they claim to love.

If you cannot communicate, the relationship is over. He is showing you who he is; believe him.

Thevelvelletes · 18/05/2024 01:43

Bugger that , what you've to walk on eggshells for the rest of your life to accommodate his moods?.
Get rid op life's too short for this bollocks.

DramaAlpaca · 18/05/2024 01:53

Oh, OP. Sulking is soul destroying.

They do it to make you think it's your fault, when it absolutely isn't. Sulking is one of the most destructive and controlling behaviours, but because it's not actually physically violent or outwardly abusive it's hard to see what's going on. It's only when you finally realise what is happening you see that it's them and not you that's behaving badly.

Don't let him do a number on you, get out of that relationship.

I speak from experience, when I was very young and daft I suffered five years with a sulker. It took meeting DH, who doesn't behave that way, to realise how wrong it is. I dumped Mr Sulky and have never regretted it.

keffie12 · 18/05/2024 02:18

Sulking of the type you talk of is domestic abuse. He is using the silent treatment to control you. You think you should behave differently. This is abuse. Get in touch with women's aid, please. It won't change or get better. I'm a survivor of so I know.

www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/recognising-domestic-abuse/

Allaboutme23 · 18/05/2024 08:35

I’d decided to get stronger , try to ignore sulking and get in as best as I can as normal. Each time he does huge sulk I think I’m leaving him, but it’s me that goes to break the ice , almost ask for forgiveness, as I can’t stand awful atmospheres . I wanted kids to have their father, asides from this a good father.

I am no shrinking violet , I know the above advice is right but then justify his behaviour because I’ve convinced myself that his bad upbringing and issue with using alcohol to self medicate is the cause and therefore pity him. The fear of us splitting makes me accept his brisk apology and weak promise to not do it again. I give myself reasons such as undiagnosed ADHD, Autism spectrum to understand meltdowns, mutism whilst knowing that my excuses for him are weak.

I really do not want my older years to be living in hope of a “normal life”, ever hopeful.

He is due heart surgery in a weeks time. I feel awful that he’s currently hurting as well as we are not talking . I’m aware this is all like a ridiculous, futile game with no winner and he knows I have no interest in that but my empathy and desire to make him happy is bigger than his sulk. My logical brain says his choice to sulk but my heart says it’s me leaving him to rot in self pity or whatever the hell it is that keeps him muted.

OP posts:
Allaboutme23 · 18/05/2024 09:41

Thank you @keffie12 x

OP posts:
araiwa · 18/05/2024 09:46

A self described confrontational and no shrinking violet person sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare and I would avoid talking to them too

PanicAttax · 18/05/2024 09:57

I hear you OP and it all sounds very similar to my dad.

Unfortunately for him he did this all through my childhood and now lives alone. Frankly I don't have the time or wish to pander to him, so he is sulking solo at his own 4 walls. I hope he is finding it useful.

I think you need to get through the op and make sure he is OK. He is obviously stressed about that as you say. I don't imagine now is a good time to think of leaving with that weighing over your head and I don't blame you for feeling that.

Do read up on it. There are some good sites that can help you to explain why their behaviour is damaging. I'd wait until he has recovered and then do a grown up chat with him. I think sadly you will need to talk to him as if you are his mum and explain that this is something a lot of other couples face and he needs to see his behaviour. You, at least, need to see it for what it is; emotional abuse. Don't minimise it's effects on you and your mental health. Surround yourself with good friends and let off steam with them/do something lovely for yourself when he is being like this to you. He can suffer but don't make him bring you down when he is in his self-destruct mode.

keffie12 · 18/05/2024 10:11

Allaboutme23 · 18/05/2024 09:41

Thank you @keffie12 x

Re your post above thanking me I too was not any shrinking violet either. People who only knew us as acquaintances were stunned when they knew what he was like.

You sound exactly like me. I knew his childhood was difficult, etc. (so was mine), so I made excuses for him.

It got worse over the years. Fortunately, I'm happily remarried.

Like you, I used to think I was to blame. I didn't understand that how the ex treated me wasn't normal.

My 2nd husband said to me one day, "Are you more difficult or fiesty with me than the ex?"

I said "no" My 2nd husband said, "Do I treat you like he did?" To which I replied,"no" case rested was his response.

It took me a lot of years for me to learn that if a relationship isn't enhancing your life, then why are you in it.

Good luck. Oh, and has he too has alcohol issues? Click this link for support for you

al-anonuk.org.uk/

FOJN · 18/05/2024 10:12

He's not hurting, he's trying to control you. It's silent treatment, not just childish sulking.

Self pity is a choice, understandable at times but it can only be fixed by the person indulging in it, you are enabling him.

He is not a good father, he is creating tension at home and you are allowing him to set a bad example of conflict resolution to your children. He will use the same tactics to control them in the future and your enabling will have conditioned them to tolerate it.

He will never change. Is this what you want for you and your children?

I divorced the man who used to do this to me. His record was 5 weeks!

MelifluousMint · 18/05/2024 10:13

He hasn't spoken to you in 7 days? 😨🤯

I think mn can be a bit trigger happy with labelling things as abuse/abusive, but this really is

Thepeopleversuswork · 18/05/2024 10:16

Nothing in the world justifies seven days of being ignored. Period.

If you are sufficiently angry with someone’s behaviour that you can’t forgive them you behave like and adult and take ownership. You either talk about it and try to work through it or you choose not to tolerate it and leave.

Sulking is a kind of abuse. It’s forcing someone to live in a state of fear and self punishment without the ability to communicate their feelings and their side of the story. You have been conditioned to think this is normal. It is not. I wouldn’t stay with someone who did this to me.

AtrociousCircumstance · 18/05/2024 10:17

There is no justification for sulking. It’s a power trip, a punishment. Purely toxic behaviour coming from a place of rage.

testing987654321 · 18/05/2024 10:26

I really do not want my older years to be living in hope of a “normal life”, ever hopeful.

He's done this many times before and will do it many times again. You say there are reasons that make him struggle to act well in a relationship, is it your job to suffer horrible behaviour because of that? What is he doing to improve his treatment of you? Anything?