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Old Feb 13, 2017, 10:37 AM
ruh roh's Avatar
ruh roh ruh roh is offline
Run of the Mill Snowflake
 
Member Since: May 2015
Location: here and there
Posts: 4,468
I don't know what the silent treatment is meant to convey, but I find it extremely hostile and coercive when people use it. My mother used to do it and it felt like an assault, like a death threat. I suppose that's because a parent is supposed to be a safe person, so removing themselves in that way is frightening. Maybe your h's silent treatment is bringing up old emotional assaults in childhood from a primary caregiver? Even if it's not, it's abusive to you during a time that you need sensitivity.

As for your own anger, it makes total sense. It's also a symptom of ptsd, which maybe this move is triggering in you. You had a safe place to go and now it's been replaced by who knows what kind of situation. Are you meeting your therapist in the new location tonight? If so, I hope he is able to dive right into this with you, as it's opening up a lot. I think my therapist would see it as both something to soothe (the move being made better or more tolerable) and as a loosening from being stuck. The unstuckness is a good thing. Emotions are good. Being frozen or dissociated is the old way. Being able to cope through the chaos and turmoil and anger is where the work is.

This is very hard stuff, and I'm not trying to make it sound easy. None of it is. But if you (and hopefully, your therapist) can see this as an opportunity, that's a way forward.
Thanks for this!
TrailRunner14