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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How to stop the silent treatment?

52 replies

SuckingDownDarjeeling · 15/11/2020 18:47

I appreciate that this whole thing is going to make me sound like a complete wet blanket.

I've already been making plans to leave, and DH isn't aware. I've been doing this for a while now though, mostly because I haven't had any time to myself to actually apply for housing.

DH had surgery well over a month ago now. When he came back from the hospital, he was a changed man. He acknowledged that he had been cold and mean towards me for a very long time and told me that it would all be a thing of the past. None of this made me think that I should cancel my plans to leave, but I'll admit that I wasn't as proactive with it as I was before he went in, because he really did seem caring and lovely.

The problem is, we hadn't been intimate for a long time, because I realised there was a pattern where after we have had sex or done anything intimate, the following day he would treat me like dirt under his shoe. I told him eventually that I didn't feel comfortable being intimate with him any more. It's been like that for months, but the night before last I let my guard down, after weeks of him promising me and reassuring me that it won't be the same.

I was stupid to believe that. Yesterday and today he has barely been acknowledging that I'm a human being. Yesterday he had a go at me for virtually every reason you could think of. He tore strips off me blaming my anxiety disorder for my own 'bad behaviour'. He told me off later because I haven't been getting DC to sleep as early as he'd like. Everything was an issue and everything was my fault. Then, later when things calmed down I asked him to talk to me about why he's so angry. He told me we would talk tomorrow (ie. today) but he's been ignoring me ever since.

It's really hurting to see that he couldn't give a shit about me. Despite the fact that I've known this for a long time, it's still hurting, and that's making me angry because I feel weak.

How do I stop caring about the silent treatment? How do I carry on feeling like a human being instead of the massive waste of space that I feel like I am right now? DC need me to be present, emotionally and physically.

OP posts:
CharlotteCollinsneeLucas · 16/11/2020 21:04

That's great that you've turned today into a positive day. There are many steps ahead: some big like you took today, some smaller, like pausing and noticing rather than reacting emotionally to something, but they are all significant and all you need to do is keep moving forward.

It's great that your DCs are calm when it's just you and them - things will be better for them when they have that for longer and with the knowledge that he's not going to walk in and change the atmosphere. Even the times they spend with him will feel different from the time they have with you, which will make it easier for them to see what a happy house feels like, what is like to be able to be yourself and know you're loved and accepted.

pointythings · 16/11/2020 21:16

What you say about your DC and their behaviour when he is not there is so telling. This is what you could have - happy life, settled children. Go for it!

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