Silence
A Tactic to Avoid Change. The obvious purpose of silence is to gain secrecy. I may attempt to control a meeting by refusing to talk. They don’t want others intruding into their psyche. Silence is often a form of my anger when others attempt to reach me. Other than pure silence, I may use I don’t know, no comment, I forgot, Nothing happened, sighing, shrugging, etc… I will use my refusal to open up with others as a means of ignoring all outside input. When I interact with others outside of the group, I will use the groups lack of knowledge about me as an excuse to discredit everything they share. However, the reason the group has so little knowledge is because I refuse to be honest about my current state. When challenged in this arena, I may shift the blame to the other party, telling them you aren’t safe, or I didn’t feel comfortable, ignoring the fact that I am in this environment to deal with my destructive behaviors, and the other members and facilitators are there to help in that.
