The characteristics of a gridlocked problem are: • The conflict makes you feel rejected by your partner. • You keep talking about it but make no headway. • You become entrenched in your positions and are unwilling to budge. • When you discuss the subject, you end up feeling more frustrated and hurt. • Your conversations about the problem are devoid of humor, amusement, or affection. • You become even more “unbudgeable” over time, which leads you to vilify each other during these conversations. • This vilification makes you all the more rooted in your positions and polarized, more extreme in
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