The Facebook "Seen" message gives me a lot of anxiety! When I see that the person has "seen" the message, but does not reply, I start thinking about all the possible reasons why they would 'ignore' me... Does anyone else feel this? If so, how do you cope?

Yes I feel this, and I tell myself if they don’t want to talk to me then their loss. Who knows maybe I invited them to a concert on the weekend. If they don’t want to talk to me then they don’t have to. They can live with the fact that that conversation could’ve changed their life if they tried. So remember that there are people out there who would love to talk to you, and it’s their loss if they don’t want to. And maybe their just busy, but when that happens I like to text my Mum

Try to relax. Some people, like me mentally think they have replied to the message but they don't always hit send. If something you have spoke about was a bit too deep then it may be a trigger for them and they have to think about their own safety and mentality first. It does make you feel a bit worthless being ignored but if they can't give you the time of day then why should you bother with them anymore? Learn to value yourself and speak with people who enjoy your company! I hope that this has helped in some way!

I understand, what you must be feeling, at the moment of feeling this anxiety you should ask yourself what about this situation makes me feel this way.? and do they have a reason to ignore me? I am sure you will get an answer that will help you label the specific reason for the anxiety, because this is your emotion and has nothing to do with the other person. At the end you could do a relaxation exercise and affirm to yourself that not everything is in your control and all you can do is be the best version of yourself and keep trying to better this version.

It's soo nerve wracking to see it as if it's taunting you. And the longer it takes for that person to reply the more my thoughts spin out of control. I learned to try to deal with it by realising, these are just thoughts, they hold no truth to them. I can't possibly know what the other person is doing, perhaps they're at work or they're walking down the street and couldn't answer, their phone could have even died. You don't know and worrying about it won't let you know. I think it has become even harder these days to see that pesky little word in the corner of your screen when being 'left on read' is such a big thing at the moemnt, people tret it like it's embarrasign or shameful and it's not, sometimes people are just busy, or unsure what to say, or what you said to them is hard to answer. You could have said 'okay' and they don't know how to respond without starting a whole new conversation. In simpler terms, IT'S OKAY not to get an answer all the time.

I completely understand you and how that feels. All sorts of questions can enter our heads, "What did I do?", "Did I do something wrong?" or even, "Are we still on okay terms?" - these are all perfectly normal questions to ask ourselves when we get these feelings of anxiety. There are plenty of different coping methods for this, but the one I tend to use is, how often do I leave someone on read but I'm not mad at the other person? It could be a good idea to think of all the reasons why *you* leave someone on read, because easily any of those reasons could be the one incorporated by the other person!

Many people feel this way, anxiety is based in fear, and in this case it is fear of the unknown. People do not like what they can not know. This fear is a survival response, it is your brain, specifically your amygdala, trying to protect you. The problem is our fear response was created in simple times, and as humans evolve the brain and our fear response does not evolve as fast socially. We have developed the "fear of missing out" because we see so many more things now with social media. This distracts us from what is right in front of us, and we end up missing out on things in the present because we are afraid of what is happening in the future.

First thing, people get hyper when other person has read and has not answered, there can be genuine reasons for the same, some times such things slips out of the mind, else if the other person is tied up in something which is actually more important then reverting to message, please give people benefit of doubt. If such things happens many a times, then it is time to ask him\her what is wrong why is the message not being answed, if that still persists, stop messaging, it is clear the other person doesnt give a shit to what you have to say, hope it helps.

Hi, that little “seen” thing is quite a pest. If I find that I am focussing on it and thinking about why they’re not replying then I remind myself that phones all work differently and they may have cancelled a notification or swiped the message away from a watch or something. I could be entirely wrong and it doesn’t work this way but it means that I’m not worried about being ‘ignored’ just that they’re busy and may have not even read the message. I know that it gets to a lot of people. It’s also worth remembering that instant messaging only works instantly if both people are glued to their phones 24/7; a lot of time this isn’t the case and even if they have read your message they have other things going on. Additionally sometimes the person doesn’t have a response, if it’s a specific person then one of the things we have done is to change (or use) the like button as sort of an acknowledgement of a message but “I don’t really have anything to say to this but I’m not ignoring you”. I don’t know if any if this will help but just some ways I try and avoid this, it’s not entirely fool proof though.

It looks to me that you are overthinking small things like this. Don't worry, I can relate too. Well you just have to ask yourself, "Why wouldn't I reply to a message and just leave it on seen?" Maybe your reason is simillar to theirs. It could also be that they don't know what to reply with or they feel that they shouldn't reply at all. For example You: I just bought some new shoes Your friend: Ooh nice! You: Thanks dude Your friend: * seen * As you can see in this example, your last message is thank you. Your friend probably feels like they don't need to reply, so they leave it on seen. There is nothing wrong with that thou

This is totally a normal feeling and a common thing to experience. I think technology can make it really hard these days and it can produce a lot of anxiety. For me, I also think about all the different reasons the person is not responding, and it is hard for me to not take it personally. However, I try to remind myself that everyone is going through different things, and maybe someone is going through something themselves that is keeping them from responding. Also, we are all human! Sometimes people see messages but are busy and genuinely forget to respond! I know this is not easy, but by you being aware and trying to better understand yourself and the process, you are ahead of the game!