After years of suppressing, repressing, and denying one's emotions, grief momentarily strips away all defenses. But their process of grieving is often less visible than women's. Men grieve on the inside, and their grief work tends to be more cognitive than emotional. That men think their way through grief is something many women know quite well. They often see men metaphorically storing their grief in a file drawer in the back of their brain.
Men seem to be running away, to have dismissed and locked away their feelings.
To do the same, women feel as if they would have to cut out part of their heart. Women want an intimate connection with their partners, but, when their partners pull away, they have no way to break through to see if their partners are actively grieving. Men often try to block out their grief. Some make a conscious effort not to think about the death of their loved one, the job loss, the impending divorce, or the feelings associated with these events. Their efforts are deliberate attempts to keep the negative and painful from penetrating their soul.