People treat us how we allow them to.

I’ve learned as a person who has both been silent and dissociative, and later after lots of therapy, the more open blabber monster.

Typically the blabber stems from a search for connection, and with some particular people, they may feel uncomfortable in silence due to many possible reasons.

A very close friend of mine once, after a shift of work together, on the drive home, said “I’m exhausted, I’m not going to waste my time with people who drain my energy any more”. That cruelty really hurt, I apologized immediately and descended into rumination. I asked her to make her needs known and set boundaries as I am not a great interpreter of “hints”. She cried the next day and apologized and said that she had been tired, and values our friendship. We are still good friends and I’ll tell you one very important thing: Kindness without honesty is manipulation And Honesty without kindness is just cruelty

Lastly, while I hear a lot of people saying to say “what are you gonna do about it?” Nothing could possibly feel more disconnecting than that if you feel powerless to a stressor. I’d go with instead using validation and encourage that person to accept the struggle, and move forward anyway. Not because it will get easier, but because it’s okay for things to be bad, and there aren’t easy solutions, speak from your own experience.

If you don’t care to have a connection with that person, there’s no justification you need to set a boundary, that’s your side of the street.