Ghosting

Confrontation has never been my strong suit. Even as a kid, if I had to confront someone my speech would become staggered, my face a bright red and my body would go limp. I would try to avoid confrontation at all costs to prevent these symptoms. However, as I got older they seemed to dissipate and it got easier. When I look around at today’s youth, I see that a lot of people are having the same issue but are dealing with it in a very unhealthy way.

When I first heard the term “ghosting” I giggled – I didn’t know that there was a term for ending a relationship by suddenly ceasing all forms of communication. After being on the receiving end of it though, it became less funny. The person who ends up ghosting people take the easy way out, and won’t be around for the aftermath of hurt, pain and confusion. It seems easy in their eyes to forget about how the other person will feel, but, we’re all human and we all have emotions. It’s already bad enough that people with anxiety are their worst critics, imagine adding this unexpected event on top of that.

I do think that ghosting can be selfish, and I do believe that there are ways to go about it differently than just removing them from your life completely. I think the problem lies in our forms of communication – we’re bombarded with different ways to communicate, yet, we severely lack that emotional connection with others.

Here are several things that you can say to make things amicable:

“Hey, last night was great, but I don’t see this moving forward.”
“I just don’t think we’re compatible in that way; I hope you understand.”
“Sorry, I don’t think I can see you again – it’s nothing personal!”

I can continue with this list, but I think you get the idea. What makes us so scared to send a message just like this to someone? In all honesty, I would rather have something like this than being entirely in the dark. It also shows a sign of maturity, too, which a lot of people respect. Just because a relationship ended doesn’t mean it wasn’t all that bad, I tend to think of them as learning experiences and try to find the positive in each of them. You can even thank a ‘ghoster’ at the end of all of this for showing you their true colours, and it may also align with a better picture of what it is that you need in your life.

Let’s rise from being uncomfortable and give others the respect that they deserve