FACTZ is very focused on wellness, mainly mental health, regarding relationships. The common trend among Gen Z, which has transferred to the Millenials, is the practice of GHOSTING.
While the Ghoster might find this move humorous, it causes severe damage to the Ghostie. We went ahead and pulled the cliff notes from many psychology studies and psychology blogs so that everyone can understand the viral damage the act of ghosting may cause:
- Short-term consequences included overwhelming rejection and confusion, along with wounded self-esteem. Contributing factors involved the lack of closure and clarity—not knowing why communication abruptly stopped, leaving the person being ghosted trying to make sense of the situation.
- Long-term effects of “ghosties” centered around feelings of mistrust that developed over time, in some cases spilling over to future relationships. Such experiences often precipitated internalized rejection, self-blame, and feelings of low self-worth.
- People increasingly utilize ghosting to end relationships and essentially practice “serial ghosting,” which can become habitual.
- A person ghosting typically has little acknowledgment of how it will make the other person feel. Ghosting is associated with adverse mental health effects on the person on the receiving end. Some mental health professionals have described it as a passive-aggressive form of emotional abuse or cruelty.
- Ghosting hurts; it’s a cruel rejection. It is excruciating because you are left with no rationale, no guidelines for how to proceed, and often a heap of emotions to sort through on your own. If you suffer from abandonment or self-esteem issues, being ghosted may bring them to the forefront.
- Being a Ghoster makes you an unreliable friend. It shows you have no respect for another person’s feelings. It says you are inconsiderate and don’t care much about the impact or consequences of your actions. It’s easier than breaking up, but it also shows you have no character when you choose ease over integrity.
If you or someone you know has been Ghosted or is a Ghoster, please share your story in the comments below. Our mental health is essential, and this immature behavior needs to be accounted for.
I was ghosted by my boyfriend during covid. We were together for seven years. He just never came home and his last text to me was that we was getting milk for our daughter. I cried for months and absolutely zero response from him. I see him on Instagram living in another state and going to football games. He hasn’t even seen his daughter which makes it a million times worse. I don’t know what to do? My last messages to him were really mean and I did hire a lawyer but he really is a ghost. We can’t find his address to serve him with papers.
Sounds like he started another family. You need to move on.
I was thinking the same thing.
Mental injuries never go away, this pain and suffering stays with a person until the end of his life. There is nothing worse than being suddenly sad in the midst of laughter
I met a guy on tinder last night and the conversation was going great, he was complimenting me a lot, he seemed sweet, so we moved to Snapchat and stayed up until 6 am talking. He was telling me that it was so fun talking to me, he was calling me nicknames, we were talking about what our first date would be, he was so nice to me it was almost suspicious. Then he told me he paused his tinder profile because he enjoyed talking to me so much. So we continued talking until we fell asleep. I wake up…and he is completely missing from Snapchat, I checked to see if I accidentally blocked him, I was super confused because he said how excited he was to talk to me tomorrow, so I quickly made a fake Snapchat account to see if he had just blocked and deleted my normal account and I still couldn’t find him when I searched his username on my new account. And his profile doesn’t show up on my tinder because he paused his account. I’m just really confused because he was so into me last night and I’ve been ghosted plenty of times before but not by someone who talks to me like they wanna be my boyfriend. And I don’t think he’s a catfish, he was sending me selfies all night. I’m just super confused, I feel like he deleted himself from the face of the planet lol. Has this ever happened to anyone?
Yeah it’s happened to me but I met her on OF. And before you judge she really liked me and gave me her her number and didn’t charge me the second time. Amy if you read this you did me dirty. Please delete the pictures I sent you.
The unknown is the killer. You will always wonder what was the reason.
The reason is another person. Ghosting is better than cheating in my opinion.
Yes, I have been ghosted. A guy I had been talking to, and thought was building a strong bond with, blocked me without a second thought because I told him I didn’t like the fat on steak. At first I thought it was a joke but as days went on I was baffled to have still not got a message from him. It made me feel so sad and honestly hurt because a simple thing made someone that I was close with, just blocked me. And it hurt worse knowing just how easy it was for him to do it. I dealt with this by ranting to my friends first and then just moving on knowing that if he did it that easily, then he really wasn’t worth my time anyways. It made me feel better by hanging out with my family and friends who I knew would cherish and accept me, even thought I didn’t like the fat on steak.
I have been ghosted. I was in the eighth grade and was dating my very first boyfriend. He was a grade older than me so we didn’t see each other very much. By the time my grade year started, we had already been dating for 8 months, but when the school year started, he got really distant. After a month of school, she stopped texting me for a while. At the time I didn’t know what was going through my mind. I thought that maybe he was just really busy and did not have time to answer me. That’s when I found out that he had gotten in trouble and when I asked him about it he lied to me about why he had gotten his phone taken away. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and believed him. When Covid he completely stopped texting me. I felt like at that point I didn’t have a boyfriend anymore so when I sent him a break up text expecting him to not respond or see my message at all, he conveniently got his phone back to apologize for everything and try to say that if I gave him a second chance he will do better but if my mind was set that he would support my decision. It did hurt to break up with him, but after I did; I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. After that, I have been very careful in who I decide to go into a relationship with; and by that I mean I haven’t been in a relationship since 2020 which has been very healing for me.
Really? Getting your feelings hurt after 1 or 2 dates or a phone call? It’s called he/she is not into you….move on. NEXT. Don’t get hung up about it, better yet, get off the apps and phones and be an ‘IN PERSON’ person. It’s harder to deny the physical person than a figment of imagination. Plus better for building real relationships and seeing how the 1/2 is in real time.
I feel that ghosting is a problem that can simply be prevented by saying, “I don’t want to talk right now” or something along those lines. These days, teenagers can feel a lot of different emotions, some driving them to the point where they just cease communication with anyone. It is understandable, because if you overshare when you are in a bad mood, which is likely to happen, it leads to problems, and problems lead to rumors. Rumors lead to drama, and it just goes through an unnecessary endless cycle that teenagers seem to be stuck in. But also just not texting the person back at all is also unnecessary, because it also leads to them wondering why they won’t text back to the point where they tell everyone they know and it becomes a big issue; all you can do is just text that you do not want to talk right now. That is the simplest yet best way to properly end a conversation with someone.
Ghosting is when a person completely cuts off communication with another individual. While I personally have never been ghosted, I understand why it might happen. Loss of interest can be one of the main causes. It may seem like ghosting only hurts the person being ghosted but beyond that It can hurt both sides of the ghosting. People will not give a reason for ghosting someone. It just happens.