What @Coloma et. al said.
I purely despise silent treatments. I don’t think there’s anything more degrading than treating another person like they’re not valuable enough to warrant even eye contact or acknowledgement. That’s horrible.
If you need time apart, say so—“I can’t talk right now, give me a couple hours,” then check in with each other, even if it’s for nothing more than another “I still can’t talk… I’m too upset.” Say something, not nothing.
During the last 2 years of my marriage my ex and I rarely talked. It wasn’t a silent treatment, but a total disinterest in conversing with each other. I honestly and thoroughly had nothing to say to him, and vice versa. Ugh! That’s a difference- that’s what happens when a relationship is deader than a beat-to-dead-horse. The difference is a silent treatment is intentional, relationship death is just what it is.