Definition: The deliberate, self-sabotaging act of avoiding difficult but necessary conversations because you fear awkwardness or conflict. It’s not just not talking; it’s actively muffling critical discussions about boundaries, feelings, or issues, hoping they’ll magically resolve if ignored.
This quiet isn’t peaceful; it’s pressurized. Unspoken frustrations ferment, misunderstandings calcify, and small problems metastasize into relationship cancers. You think you’re keeping the peace, but you’re just building a soundproof chamber where resentment echoes louder and louder until it blows the damn doors off.
Example: He practiced conversational kryptonite, swallowing complaints about his partner’s constant lateness to dinners, letting irritation silently poison their evenings out.
She muffled her hurt feelings about being excluded from girls’ trips, plastering on a smile while bitterness grew like mold beneath the surface.