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What to do when your “grey rock” blows up into a million exploding pieces
How to recover when a toxic person has successfully triggered you out of grey rock
The “grey rock” response is an effective method of avoiding manipulative, emotionally, and mentally abusive behavior. It is often used by victims of narcissistic abuse when they cannot go completely no contact. It comprises maintaining a non-threatening and neutral demeanor, keeping responses polite but as short and concise as possible, and refraining from reacting to the toxic person’s baiting. You can read more about the method itself in these Medium articles:
https://medium.com/@TheAliSiddiqui/the-grey-rock-method-63a1385008d9
This is a great technique to minimize the toxic person’s ability to drag you into an endless cycle of abuse, but it doesn’t completely neutralize the negative effects of simply being in their toxic presence. Even if you don’t react to it, their behavior still has an effect on you. When you have to endure prolonged exposure to the toxic individual, grey rocking can mean letting all that negativity build up, which can eventually lead to a grey rock explosion. Let me give you an example.
It started with a…
