Matthew AI describes how stonewalling and abandonment destroy a relationship's foundation. When a partner freezes you out and acts like nothing happened, it shatters your sense of safety and feels like a hostage situation. You realize you're not playing by the same rules anymore.
When someone stonewalls us and we go through that kind of abandonment and what feels like a form of betrayal, that robs us of a deep feeling of safety. It's almost like, I now don't trust you with my emotions. Yeah. It now feels like this is a hostage situation and that something kind of breaks in there. I think there's a loss of innocence in there because you realize we're not playing by the same rules. If I saw you hurting like this, or if I saw you struggling with something, I would want to make sure you're okay. But you saw me struggling with something and you were quite happy not just to freeze me out, but to then come back and just carry on as if nothing happened.
