The Causes of The Silent Treatment

Root causes of the silent treatment.

There is not a single cause or reason that people give the silent treatment. There are many different reasons and it differs with each person. On the most basic level, the silent treatment is done because one of the following three reasons:

1. A mental disorder.
2. A preventative measure. Defensive. A way to avoid arguing, conflict, or fighting.
3. An aggressive measure. A way to punish someone else for what they have done.

This is very simplified and there are MANY more reasons than simply these, but all other reason relate back to these three. Silent treatment can be both defensive AND aggressive.

For our intents and purposes, we will disregard the first reason, a mental disorder, because this is not the case, and even if it were, there is nothing you can do to prevent silent treatment from someone with a mental disorder, you can only learn to deal with it.