Sometimes the reason for a guy's silence is obvious: He's engrossed in work; he's concentrating on Angry Birds; he's crammed so much burger into his mouth that he's incapable of making a sound. But there are also times when his tight-lipped state is a total mystery… and that's when it can have a negative effect on your relationship. 'A women will often take a man's silence to be a bad thing because she assumes it means that he doesn't want to communicate with her or that he just doesn't care,' says Dr William July, author of
Understanding The Tin Man (Broadway). It doesn't help that when he sees that his silence is hurting you or making you angry; he just feels even more pressure to say the right thing… and becomes even less likely to talk. Luckily, you can break the cycle by understanding why he shuts up in the first place.