Men Who Withdraw From Good Marriages As They Get Older Usually Have These 7 Reasons
Every marriage has an ebb and flow, but some men flow too far.
Juanmonino | Canva That certain chill in the air. The posture was slightly too rigid and closed off. The tone is just a little too clipped. The words may be right, but something is off. A disconnection. It’s like the plug that charges the marriage is only partly plugged in.
It happens in every relationship. It can be as minor as one partner withdrawing for a few moments or hours. Or, it can also prove fatal to the relationship when withdrawal becomes the default position.
So, is there a reason why men pull away from their partners? What makes the connection faulty and the charge intermittent? This is important marriage advice that can give you more insight into the inner workings of your partnership and a better understanding.
Here are 7 reasons men usually withdraw from good marriages as they get older:
1. Fear of intimacy
It’s scary to allow someone into your innermost thoughts, dreams, and fears. As a marriage progresses to ever-deepening levels, it’s common to pause and even retreat for a bit to acclimate to the new level of connection, much like a deep-sea diver has to take breaks on the return to the surface.
This type of withdrawal, when short-lived, is nothing to worry about. It’s simply time spent adjusting and processing before the next level is reached. If, however, the retreat from intimacy occurs early and often, it may be a sign that someone is not yet ready to be vulnerable and open.
Marriage counselor Nicola Beer recommended starting with self-intimacy. "To have a positive close relationship, we need to have a good relationship with ourselves, to know what makes us happy, what we desire in a relationship, and to know ourselves, deeply. This is key as it enables us to overcome any blockages or fears of intimacy. It starts with self-care."
2. Fear of rejection
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This withdrawal type can lead to a sad self-feeding loop. One partner is afraid of rejection and decides they would rather retreat than risk approaching. The other partner can then easily feel rejected by their partner pulling back.
"And this keeps your self-esteem low," advised life coach Kelly Rudolph. "It makes you afraid to put yourself out there, and after a while, you block yourself from ever experiencing what you want most — to be loved and cherished. You may consciously know it's not about you, but inside, all of these big and small rejections snowball over time, making you afraid to risk feeling anything at all."
You can have a situation where both people crave connection yet are too afraid to risk asking for it. If you are afraid of rejection, work to address your own needs that allow this worry to grow. If your partner makes a bid for attention, work to respond in a way that is accepting rather than rejecting.
3. Flooding emotions
Some people are more sensitive than others; an amount of emotion that may feel perfectly tepid to one person may be scalding to another. When somebody floods, their emotions overwhelm them. And even though their surface may remain placid, inside they are a swirl of chaos.
When someone is flooded, they are unable to respond rationally and struggle to normalize their emotional balance. When something is too intense, it’s natural to retreat for a time.
Flooding is often a sign of some unresolved trauma, the emotions triggered having more to do with the past than the present, as shown by a study in Current Opinion in Psychology. If your partner is easily triggered, work to be supportive and patient while encouraging him or her to address the underlying issues. If you find that you are easily overwhelmed, make resolving your trauma a priority.
4. Anger
Some people wear their anger on their sleeves and leave no doubt as to the emotion at the helm. Others are more covert, either because they have been trained to hide anger or because they are afraid of addressing the underlying problem face-on. Furtive anger can often lead to withdrawal when one partner steams in silence.
When anger is at a peak, it is often advisable to retreat for a time to calm down and think more rationally. That respite should be followed by an approach, communicating the anger, and working together to resolve the broken boundaries. If one (or both) partners consistently fume from afar, the anger will only mutate into resentment, causing a more permanent rift in the relationship.
5. Introversion
Some people simply require more solitude than others. It’s easy for an extrovert to sense a disconnect from their introverted partner when the latter is retreating to refuel their energy.
If you are the more introverted partner, it is your responsibility to communicate your need for alone time to your spouse and make connection and intimacy a priority when you are together. If you are feeling left out by an introvert, learn how to establish a connection without overwhelming your senses.
6. Outside pressures
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Marriages do not exist in a vacuum. We all have demands placed (OK, sometimes heaped) upon us from outside the relationship. Withdrawal can occur anytime someone is feeling overwhelmed and overworked. It’s a method of survival, cutting off blood flow to some areas to focus on what is critical at the moment.
A marriage can survive a short-term starvation of attention and energy. Yet leave the tourniquet on too long, and there will be no marriage to return to. If your spouse is in survival mode, strive to be compassionate yet also persistent about maintaining connection. If you are the drowning one, don’t neglect to ask your spouse for a hand.
7. Pursue/withdraw dance
This is one of the fatal relationship patterns often described by the Gottman Institute. Understand that your partner’s withdrawal has more to do with them than with you. Don’t take it personally. But at the same time, take it seriously, because a habit of withdrawal can initiate a catastrophic domino effect.
The initial withdrawal can occur for any of the above reasons. If it is then followed by a panicking spouse's desperate grab for attention, it sets up the choreography for a dance in which one partner is always retreating and the other is always grasping.
All relationships have an ebb and flow of intimacy. The challenge is to learn how to ride it out rather than allow any periods of withdrawal to slide into a downward spiral of disconnection.
For the partner sensing the distance and craving connection, the key is to relax and not push away or flood the more reserved partner. For the attachment to return, the retreating partner must be aware of their patterns and make a sustained effort to maintain the intimacy.
Lisa Arends works as a math teacher and a wellness coach. She's the author of Lessons From the End of a Marriage.