Avoiding stonewalling

Stonewalling can occur when one partner feels like nothing they can say will be the right thing to say, or taken oppositely, that everything will probably be the wrong thing to say.

It very often happens when one person is flooded with emotions because a conversation has already gone off the rails. It’s often a good thing to not make the conversation worse, but stonewalling is not the solution either.

To find a middle ground, try saying “Let’s take a break”, “Time out”, “Let me think”, etc - just find a way to communicate to the other partner that you aren’t withdrawing from the conversation, simply giving yourself time to calm down and think.