The dreaded word, the word that takes us from feeling incredible, to a piece of shit! Questioning, are we worthy? Are we not likeable, do they not fancy us? Lets face it its fucking horrible.

However that’s from one side of the fence, what about the people we have ghosted, see we never think about that, do we! However I recently had a big wake up call on this. A lovely lovely guy I had started chatting to was great, handsome, I mean this guy would have been a hottie on Love Island, and he clearly liked me, lived in my area and we crossed paths, and matched on a dating app to, however I couldn’t ignore the fact he was 8 years younger than me, he had kids, so there was maturity there, but still, the age gap got to me, and after a few weeks talking, I did, I’m afraid to admit, go quiet on him. After a few days, I received a really long message about how rude I was, and how disappointed he was, and I couldn’t help but respect his message, even if it was hard hitting. It was a message I had typed out a few times to people, but never had the guts to send..

The emotional pain, caused by ghosting, can be a lot more traumatic, that what it seems on the surface. Think about this girls, the intensity of the last chat, the excitement, or even the last date with that person, to then have nothing, its like raising our dopamine (or theirs) to the highest peak and then crashing it to zero.. life feeling so perfect, then nothing. Every text they send/ you send, raises a smile, makes our heart skip a beat, then suddenly nothing, and the best thing about all of this is, its not always the person, at the other end of the phone that we are addicted to, its the hit their contact gives us, we are/ or they are, addicts, addicted to that smile, that excitement of receiving your text, so when the contact stops, cold turkey sets in.

As time passes, the overthinking kicks in, what did we do wrong? are we god enough? what did I say? They may change their hinge image, their profile picture, so you know they aren’t dead, and they haven’t blocked you, so why aren’t they replying! However remember its in this moment, you should realise, it’s not the person you are missing, it’s the attention and the good feel, you’re missing, not them.

A survey of 5,000 people conducted by Forbes Health found that 76 percent of participants had either ghosted the other person or had been ghosted themselves when dating. WOW! It’s a surprise anyone is even talking hey!

With ghosting, the not knowing can be more overwhelming and upsetting, than the actual knowing, because as human beings we naturally ponder on our thoughts, and however optimistic, our default is set to negative it seems, our minds want to know more, and this drives overthinking, which leads to a deep anxiety, which can worsen our already disheartened symptoms. Sat there trying to piece together the jigsaw, and wonder what the missing piece is.

Ghosting can also lead us to feel rejected, and that can open the pandoras box of past trauma, a time when we failed, a time when we were dumped, a time someone in our life, simply didn’t want us, this person who has spent 5 minutes in our world, can open up the most traumatic memories, by simply choosing to ignore us, and again, we can do the same to others by rejecting them.

Ghosting can also almost feel like we are also confirming our inner doubts on ourselves. We all, and it doesn’t matter how confident we are, sit there and think at times, am I good enough, so when we face being ghosted, sometimes for individuals, this can almost act a reconfirmation for what they may be thinking, so we can truly amplify someones inner self doubt, and make them feel not good enough. It may also lead people to doubt that they can truly judge people, was it all fake, have they been duped, are they stupid? How did they not read the room? How could they fall for that person? How could they have not seen it coming? So not only does the gravity of not feeling aesthetically good enough feel, the feeling of stupidity and naivety can actually make us feel even worse.

Nobody likes the thought of rejection, let alone social rejection with someone we do not even know, our brains feel the physical pain, like a real break up with a long love, it associates, and like I stated, opens a pandoras box of emotions.

People ghost for various reasons, we only have to look at how and why we ghosted, to find the answers. Someone can be so attracted to you, but simply not be ready for a relationship. I guess with me, I don’t even know if I am ready for a relationship, so it gets so far, and yes I go quiet, if I feel their is pressure then I go quiet, but I know that’s my issue, and I know that sooner or later there will be an energy match there with someone, that I won’t want to disappear on. Sometimes it could simply be, that the person has luckily found their energy match elsewhere, and sometimes it could just be they’re a fucking player.. it is what it is..

Following my recent lesson, and hmm, telling off, I realised, Yes I’m a kind person, so however hard it may be to write the words of rejection, that good person deserves to know I am not interested, because it will give them an acceptance, and not leave them lost in their thoughts, so deep down, lets be kind, lets say it black and white, because words can be kinder than ghosting…