Why the Silent Treatment is the Weapon of Choice for Narcissists
And how you can find your voice in the silence.
Trigger Warning: this article contains discussions of domestic abuse that may not be suitable for all readers. Fearless community, please read with care.
The day had come. I was finally going to watch the YouTube video I had saved for when I was feeling brave. My finger hovered over the red play arrow and I tried to remember to breathe.
It took me three months to pluck up the courage to watch Rosie Duffield’s UK Parliamentary speech about her personal experience with domestic abuse.
“Abuse is very often all about control and power.”
— Rosie Duffield, UK Member of Parliament
When she made the speech there was an immediate outpouring of public support. She inspired radio talk shows where people discussed the subject openly. Following Rosie’s lead, women finally felt brave enough to open up about their own abuse, after listening and recognizing that she was describing what they were also living through.
Rosie had experienced and escaped from abuse, was talking about it in the male-dominated bastion of the British government, and suddenly women everywhere felt able to tell their stories too.
