Olive -- no, my ex-bf refused to be an adult and discuss his emotions with me. When we first met, he should have just handed me a business card with his name, that read underneath, "emotionally unavailable late 30s male, recently divorced, emotionally abusive and prone to sulking and silent treatment." Because that would have saved me from all of the pain and suffering he put me through during our relationship.

Had I known what I do now, I never would have dated him in the first place. Being in that relationship, was like participating in the Red Flag Olympics; I was constantly confronted with emotional and psychological hurdles that most people need not be.

If I ever do date again, I will date a man 100% opposite of my ex-bf.

All I can comment on, about your situation, is that the more communication there is between you and your boyfriend, the stronger the relationship will be, on emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual levels. If two people who live together can't talk to each other in good times and bad, then they shouldn't be together.

If your boyfriend's sulking and silent treatment bothers you, you need to tell him that. You can't force him to change the way he expresses his anger. But, you can tell him that you are going to change the way that you respond to his sulking and silent treatment (whatever that response will be), as you are no longer going to put up with it anymore.

If he remains inflexible, and sulks and gives you the silent treatment, and that's not something you're willing to compromise on, then you need to decide about your future together. If your partner's emotional health is dysfunctional and they are unwilling to acknowledge it to themselves, let alone to you, that puts you in the awkward (and unfair) position, of walking on eggshells, and compromising your own emotional needs (not being met by your partner).

Your boyfriend either needs to stop sulking and be more communicative with you out of respect for your feelings, or you need to change the way you respond to his behavior when he gets like that, to show him that you will not sacrifice your own emotional needs just so his are always met, all the time. It takes two to tango, as they say.

My grandparents marriage lasted over 70 years because they talked to each other, and accepted each other's flaws, nurtured each other's interests, strengths, protected each other from harm, apologized to each other, admitted when they were wrong, didn't hold grudges, laughed a lot together, and stuck together through difficult periods of their marriage. They were best friends (they met in high school) and soul mates. They died in attached rooms in the same nursing home, within hours of each other. A true love story; nothing like my parents rocky marriage was.