The Avoiding Conflict Style

If avoiding is your style, you step back when a disagreement heats up. You change the subject, leave the room, or wait for a better time. Often you decide the issue is not worth the upset, and often you are right.

The strength is calm. You rarely say something you regret, small annoyances pass without a scene, and you give both of you time to cool down. The cost is that some things do not pass. An issue that never gets talked about can sit under the surface, and a partner who wants to talk may read your silence as not caring.

You make up by going back to normal: a joke, a snack shared on the sofa, an ordinary evening. For you that is the repair.

What helps: when you step away, say when you will come back to it, and then do. Start with one sentence about how you feel. Short, planned talks at a calm time will suit you far better than a showdown.