Toxic Relationships.
Healthy vs. Narcissistic Ghosting.
When ghosting is necessary and when it is passive aggression.
Ghosting is a form of stonewalling considered one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in romantic relationships. Ghosting and stonewalling are avoidance defence strategies that break emotional bonds, lead to conflict, dysfunction, and eventual destruction of a relationship.
“ Stonewalling is withdrawal from the interaction, an emotional avoidance strategy. It is expressed by non-responsiveness to one’s partner, avoiding eye contact, acting busy, or engaging in other distracting behaviors” — J. E. Beeney et al.
Ghosting is similar to stonewalling, except that it is often permanent and involves completely walking away from a discussion, friendship, or relationship. Some literature refers to ghosting exclusively as a relationship break-up tactic, while others discuss it as a toxic or abusive mechanism used across all forms of relationships.
Narcissists stonewall and ghost in relationships to provoke their partners to react negatively or when they’re not getting their way in the hope of…
