How To Respond To Ghosting Without Losing Your Sanity?

If you have already experienced ghosting, you’d know how painful it can be. It is terrible enough when a relationship comes to an end, but it is even worse when the other person simply disappears into the wind like they never existed. Sadly, there are people who are cruel enough to leave without any confrontation. It’s what’s known as ghosting, and it sure hurts a lot. No meeting, no call, not even a goodbye text.

You don’t know what’s the best ghosting response, you don’t know how to reply to ghosting, and neither do you know what’s going to be your ghosting revenge, because chances are there will be never an opportunity of confronting a ghoster. You ultimately have to accept that they have vanished into thin air, never to return.

As a result, a slew of thoughts follows, most of which lead to more questions than answers. “What just happened?” “Did this person just disappear on me?” And perhaps, most importantly, “What next?” Let’s put all your questions to bed, so you don’t spend your nights thinking about the best ghosting responses.

What Is Meant By “Ghosting Someone”?

For the uninitiated, let’s first define what exactly “ghosting” means. Google provides the definition of ghosting as “the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.” A person who ghosts someone refuses to answer any calls or texts of their previous romantic interest. They leave without any acknowledgment and pretend as if any form of relationship never existed.

Ghosting is generally associated with romantic relationships, but one can also be ghosted by a friend or a relative too. Those who have been ghosted are clueless as to what happened, and the lack of closure doesn’t make things better. Usually, they are incapable of calling out someone who ghosted them.

Perhaps it’s the lack of closure that hurts most after getting ghosted, the tinge of hope that they might just come back and drop in a “Hey”. The unwillingness to accept that this just happened may also in some cases cause long-lasting mental harm and self-esteem issues that may continue to plague your next few relationships.

When it’s all unfolding before your eyes, it’s hard to see how you might get over this…humbling experience. “What do you text after being ghosted?” you might ask yourself, thinking about the best text response to ghosting, as if that will somehow magically reverse the entire situation.

Unexpected ghosting leaves one wondering about the worst-case scenarios for a long time until they come to an acceptance that they have been ghosted. This is the point where they finally start recovering from ghosting. If you’ve gone through something similar, just without the sudden and complete lack of communication, it’s possible you might’ve been a victim of what’s known as ‘soft ghosting’.

What is soft ghosting?

Soft ghosting is used by those who don’t possess a heart of stone but still want to slither their way out of a potential lover’s life without offering closure. In effect, they’re no better if you’d ask us. What exactly is soft ghosting? Soft ghosting is when a person you’re talking to gradually and slowly starts cutting down conversation, eventually reaching a place where they might just like your messages, without responding to them.

When you’re being soft ghosted, you might quickly see things go from texting each other every day to just seeing each other’s names when you’re scrolling through a list of who saw your story. Also known as caspering in a relationship, soft ghosting, while a slower and perhaps less brutal alternative, still isn’t something you should do to someone.

Wondering, “How to respond to soft ghosting?” Well, it isn’t any different than trying to figure out “What do you text after being ghosted?” They both lead you down the same road of self-doubt and retrospection, which is why figuring out how to respond to ghosting becomes the most important thing.

Related Reading: When I was subjected to ‘ghosting’ in my relationship

How To Respond To Ghosting?

Being cut out from someone’s life without any information or conversation can be really painful. Here you are, trying to figure out why is a close one not responding and then you suddenly realize you have been ghosted. So, how exactly do you respond to getting ghosted? How can you respond to potential ghosting?

Even the best ghosting responses might not be able to overturn what just happened, since the person who ghosted you probably made their mind up long before they pulled the plug.

Whether it is a friend, a close acquaintance, an online dating partner, or your romantic interest, the hurt, pain, and trauma are the same. Discovering you have been ghosted can be devastating and you can feel lost as to how to deal with it.

But instead of crying and grieving, there are smart ways to respond to ghosting that help you maintain your dignity and your mental health. Let us share these 11 tips on how to respond to ghosting.

1. Calm yourself down

It can be extremely unnerving and unsettling to find out that the person you thought you clicked with isn’t responding to your calls and is leaving your texts on seen. It can be maddening, plain frustrating because you never saw it coming. However, you really need to try and not lose your cool.

You’re angry and you’re hurting. It is absolutely understandable. But don’t let anger or pain get the better of you. It might hit you all of a sudden, it’s likely the realization crept in like an unwanted sickness, but even so, the pain that comes with it might lead you to take some drastic steps.

In your anger, you might end up looking up things like How to respond to soft ghosting or best ghosting responses with your mind made up to immediately text this person who ghosted you. Before you do that, ask yourself, they ghosted you for no good reason. When you get angry and send them texts they’d much rather not reply to, what makes you think they’ll come back?

The first and foremost step you need to take to respond to ghosting is by recovering from ghosting. It will take time, but you need to give yourself a space to breathe and think objectively. Take this as a painful yet important learning lesson.

2. A smart way to respond to ghosting – first, snap out of denial

How to respond to ghosting can be very tricky. You have calmed yourself down, you’re taking deep breaths, but you are still unable to wrap your head around the fact that you have been ghosted. It is difficult, but you cannot respond to ghosting if you stay in a state of denial. You don’t know how to survive this betrayal.

Most people on being ghosted keep giving their romantic interest an upper hand thinking they are too good to do something as bad as simply cut you out of their lives. You might hate to hear this right now but not everybody is as good as you would want them to be.

You need to bring yourself out of denial. No, this person is not going to come back in a couple of days, apologizing for not having replied. No, their phone hasn’t gotten stolen or lost, if it did, they’d find a way to text you after a while. It may be hard to come to terms with getting ghosted, but the best way to get out of denial is to realize that this person ghosting you might not have anything to do with you.

Perhaps they ghosted you for reasons that have nothing to do with you, like an ex coming back or just them having wildly disproportionate expectations. Accept that you’ve been ghosted, and put the effort into dealing with it in a healthy manner.

3. Do not beg at all

If you want to respond to ghosting in a way they would remember forever, then never beg them to come back in case they start hoovering like a narcissist a few months later. Just give them the cold shoulder.

Do you still message your romantic interest thinking they will have a sudden epiphany that you are indeed their soulmate because you really care? Are you incessantly messaging them with things like “I miss you”, “Where are you?”, “I am making your favorite dish”, or the worst of all, “I am wearing your favorite dress”, just so that they would reply to you? Well, please stop!

A person who does not have the courtesy to come clean about their feelings does not deserve even a little bit of your attention. Accept that you’ve been ghosted and move on. Begging them to respond is only going to push them away even further. A smart way to respond to ghosting is to become a ghost yourself.

4. Send one last text

Ghosting hurts, and one of the worst feelings while being ghosted is the oscillation of emotions between the desperate need to see your phone beep with their text and throwing anything in your sight at the person who ghosted you because they hurt you. You feel like you deserve closure, at least.

Take one moment and pause the swinging. You may not want to but try to give the other person one final benefit of the doubt. Send one last text to them saying, “You haven’t texted/responded in a while. I don’t know what it is, but if you would like to talk about it, I’m all ears. If you’re not, have a nice life.” If you wish to, you can even make it clear to them that this is the last time you’re messaging them. If they reply, great. If they don’t, there can be no better time to recover from ghosting.

When they don’t reply to the final message you send them, it’s basically them screaming “I don’t respect you” without really saying anything to you. At least now you won’t be thinking about the best ghosting responses.

Related Reading: He gave me the perfect birthday and then never contacted me again!

5. It is okay to grieve

Since confronting a ghoster is not possible when they have vanished from the scene, you will be left with many questions and a knot in your stomach. You cannot plot your revenge on the ghoster too because you don’t know where to find them.

Were you having the best time of your life before the person you thought was ‘the one’, ghosted you? It is indeed a terrible thing to do. It is completely understandable to be dejected and heartbroken. Eventually, you will feel better, but right now, you might want to grieve. Do not stop yourself from doing so.

Grieving is just as important a step to respond to ghosting as any other. You cannot expect yourself to be okay the very next moment. Therefore, it is okay to feel sad. It is okay to put your head on your best friend’s shoulder and cry. Grieving is essential in recovering from ghosting. After all, that person really mattered to you.

6. Don’t blame yourself

In every split between two people, the innocent one tends to take the entire blame on themselves, when it is not really their fault. You are probably doing it too. You’re probably thinking: “Maybe I was too clingy and that killed our relationship” or “Maybe I expected too much” or “I was not good enough for them.”

You need to stop blaming yourself right now. It is not your fault that another adult did not have enough sense to talk to you about it. It is not your fault that they do not understand the meaning and importance of communication.

Ghosting hurts, but you did not cause this pain to yourself. Someone else caused it too. The sooner you realize that the sooner you will be able to respond to ghosting in a better manner. That’s the smart way to deal with ghosting and move on.

7. Take care of your health, no matter what

Binge eating ice cream and fried stuff can help you feel better, but it is not healthy in the long run. Believe me, eating healthy and working your body by exercising or going for a run is going to make you feel much more refreshed, energetic, and rejuvenated. Exercising can help you cope with your emotions.

Treat those unhealthy delicacies simply as food, do not substitute them with love. You’re already not in good mental shape. If your health goes downhill, you will not feel better any sooner. Therefore, eat healthy, work out, and throw those bins of ice cream, boxes of pizzas, and cartons of cigarettes. Make yourself a healthier person and you will definitely see the difference.

Related Reading: Ghosting In Relationship: What Does It Mean In A Relationship

8. Be thankful they left

The last thing you need in your life is any form of negativity. You may not want to believe it, but you have honestly dodged a bullet. How do you react to ghosting then? Be thankful.

Whatever happens, it really does happen for good. Once you’re able to clear the cloud of grief in your mind, you will be able to look at the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is certainly brighter and more beautiful.

Once you realize that you just missed a storm, you will thank your stars that they left, and you will finally recover from ghosting. You’ll figure out how to get over unrequited love, and this is the best way to respond to ghosting.

9. Meet new people

One mistake most people make while recovering from ghosting is believing that everybody is the same. Everybody is not the same. You may fear going down that road again, but you need to tackle that emotion of being terrified. Take your time, but let yourself be vulnerable at some point in time.

Meet new people and you will learn that dating is not as bad as it once seemed and that there are people like you who have been hurt in the past, but they have emerged stronger. You will eventually find someone with shared interests and shared emotions.

10. Ponder on the red flags that you avoided

This step brings a learning curve to avoid such mishaps in your future relationships. Once you’ve successfully learned how to respond to ghosting, ponder over your relationship with the person and try to identify the red flags that you possibly ignored.

It is unusual that a person would just vanish out of nowhere. There must be certain instances where you felt something fishy but brushed it off. Think about what happened. Did you both fight regularly and the other person chose flight? Or did they always seem distant and disinterested? Although, please make sure you do not feel hurt again.

The sole point of this activity is because ghosting hurts, and you would not want that to happen with you again. Making peace with your past is the best way forward and also a smart way of dealing with ghosting.

Related Reading: The 7 Components Of Male Psychology During No-Contact Rule – Backed By An Expert

11. Seek professional help

If nothing works for you and you’re just unable to respond to ghosting and cope with it, please seek professional help. Talking to a therapist is the safest place where you can vent your emotions and not worry about being judged.

They will guide you in a much more professional manner, and help you recover from ghosting much faster. Do make a call to a counselor if you feel you need it. There is no issue too small to talk to a counselor about.

There are times when the person who ghosted comes back. Usually, it is because they’re lonely again and want to try their luck once more. Sometimes, they come back with a genuine circumstance that made them leave without notice. No matter what the reason is, once you have dealt with ghosting and recovered from the pain, all you have to do is listen to what they have to say and make a decision.

Do not become weak again, for people who ghost generally never have pure intentions. Be confident about yourself. The right person for you will never leave you this way, and you undeniably deserve better.

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