The experience of Stonewalling will haunt me for a long time. It is traumatizing and debilitating.

Stonewalling is the avoidance of communicating feelings or discussing problems with the other person in the Relationship. It’s when your partner just completely shuts down on you, leaving you confused, vulnerable, and feeling unworthy. This usually includes the absence of sex too, which can lead to decreased self-worth, self-esteem, and insecurities.

When a partner becomes silent, there are many reasons why. It could be to avoid conflict, avoid discussing important issues in the relationship, or avoid Communication in general. Unfortunately, the damage it causes can be psychologically traumatizing.

I was the recipient of this hell and when I say it was hell, that’s putting it lightly. 

While it hasn’t been labeled as a form of abuse, it can be seen as emotional or mental abuse because of the psychological trauma it causes. I can tell you that the experience of living with someone who is cold toward you, only talking about surface level things, and avoiding any real or deep conversation haunts me every single day.

I would ask myself on a daily basis how I could make this better and create reasons in my head that it was my fault. Why else would he not communicate with me and work on our issues?

Well, to no surprise, he walked out on me. If I wasn’t confused, hurt, angry, or frustrated among many more emotions, I most definitely was now.

I felt lost…I felt abandoned…I felt worthless.

I spent and still spend sleepless nights trying to figure out when things started spiraling downhill and if it could have been prevented. How could he have done this without hesitation? It felt like I was being continually punched in the stomach for weeks upon weeks. I still feel it at times.

When I asked him questions about the relationship, I was either ignored or received very vague answers. Avoidance at its finest. I was planning to spend the rest of my life with this man who was now a stranger to me.

I had made cards for him to open on a daily basis for over a year so he knew he was valued and loved. Guess what? While cleaning out the house I once called home, he wouldn’t even open the cards and his response was “Well, what do you want me to do?”

Oh, I’m sorry. I must have forgotten that I was that insignificant and unworthy to you. That I spent hours and hours making sure you felt loved and valued. So, I threw them out.

This avoidance and emotional withdrawal will never be forgotten. 

The feeling of being so lost and so confused will forever be a mystery as to why everything happened the way it did. The devaluation and lack of importance to someone I slept next to every night haunt me still.

The emotional investment I put forth until the day he left exhausts me to even think about. So, I think in a way, it can be a form of abuse due to the conscious effort to emotionally withdraw from the relationship while I dug myself into a deeper hole in attempts to help him and our relationship.

Experiencing stonewalling firsthand, I can now say that I understand the true essence of communication in relationships. 

I will absolutely never be the same after this horrific and mortifying experience. He has forever damaged a girl who only wanted to love him and care for him.

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