So what’s texting anxiety anyway? Picture the scene – you’ve finally made friends with your crush on social media and you’re now experiencing itchy fingers. You want to text them, you want to reach out and initiate contact, but you’re terrified! What if they take it the wrong way? What if they don’t reply? What if you say something totally stupid and can’t recall the message?
Oh, the wonders of the digital age!
Texting anxiety can also cover a different aspect, i.e. waiting for a reply to a text you have sent, or waiting for someone to text you when they said they would.
Both situations are equally as nail-biting, so how can you reduce texting anxiety and keep your panic levels down?
How to overcome texting anxiety when sending a text
The problem with any type of written message is that it can easily be misunderstood. The way you write a message, the voice you hear in your head as you’re writing it, is not always going to be the same one that the person reading it has. For instance, “okay” can mean “great! okay!”, or it can just mean “oh, right, okay”. Even worse, it could just mean “k”.
Can you see the minefield we’re about to enter?
For that reason, you need to be as transparent and clear as water. You need to make sure there is no room for misunderstanding, but that in itself means that you run the risk of stating the obvious and making the other person feel like you’re not taking their intelligence seriously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDEl3FXJAuQ
Yet more joys!
My advice to you is this, before you write a text, open up the notes section on your phone and draft it out. Then, when you’ve got it right, you can simply copy and paste it over to your messaging app and press send. Once you’ve sent the text, avoid checking to see if they’ve read it a million times, you’re only going to stress yourself out and they’ll see that you’re online which makes you look a tiny bit thirsty.
How to overcome texting anxiety when waiting for a reply
The second stage of texting anxiety is either waiting for a reply to a text you’ve sent or waiting for someone to text you when they said they would. Both are equally as anxiety-inducing, but it’s important to remember that at this point, there’s nothing you can do.
My biggest piece of advice to you here is to never send another text. Step away from your phone people!
I’m one of those annoyingly organized people who replies to her messages basically straightaway. It’s good for anyone who texts me, but I automatically assume that everyone is going to do the same back. Wrong. They don’t. My sister alone takes two days to respond.
What if they don’t reply? That’s the key question
Well, there’s not a lot you can do about it but again, DO NOT SEND ANOTHER TEXT!
Seriously, please don’t. It’s embarrassing, I’ll be embarrassed for you. Instead, put it down to experience and move on. If this person can’t even be bothered to acknowledge a text, is this someone you want to spend more time with? If they’re this lazy with texting, can you imagine how lazy they’re going to be with other things? Of course, understanding texting anxiety also means that you need to be mindful of what you do when people send you a text. Don’t put them through the same anxiety; if you’re not interested, let them down gently, but at least tell them and don’t leave them wondering. It’s not cool to leave someone hanging on.
