People Who Take Forever To Text Back Are Usually Dealing With 2 Specific Struggles That Are Hard To Put Into Words
Monster Ztudio | Shutterstock Despite how convenient texting is, there are still some people who prefer to take their sweet time when it comes to replying. You might send them a simple message, and hours later, you're still waiting around for them to say something back.
It's easy to take it personally, but according to experts, there's actually more going on with people who take forever to respond to texts than you may even realize. A study found that there are psychological struggles individuals may be going through that inhibit them from finding the energy to respond in a timely way.
People who take forever to respond to texts are usually dealing with information anxiety and psychological resistance.
The study found that people who take forever to respond to texts are usually struggling with both information anxiety and psychological resistance. When it comes to information anxiety, most people struggle to focus when there's too much noise. Their brain panics and stops processing.
While psychological resistance happens when a person's brain "rebels" against an activity because it feels like too much work, this is another reason why someone might feel too overwhelmed to respond to text messages.
It's definitely easy to label someone as being lazy and inconsiderate when they leave you on read or take hours, sometimes even days, to respond. In reality, their delay actually has very little to do with you at all. It's just tied to how their brain is processing information in that moment.
Experts found that texting can be stressful for some people.
Despite the fact that most people prefer texting, as WhatsApp found after reporting a 40% spike in their users, along with a study of more than 1,300 US adults, which showed that use of digital communications of all kinds increased during Covid, with text messaging leading with a 43% jump, it's still stressful.
"One reason they stress us out is the built-in urge to read a text in real time – and the parallel expectation in online culture that you will also respond in real time,” explained Elias Aboujaoude, a psychiatrist at Stanford University in California. Before you know it, texting starts to feel rather cumbersome.
This might be especially true for Gen Z. Nearly half of Gen Z singles say texting anxiety is the specific reason they are single, according to a 2026 study by Vervo, a task management service. The same research found that the average person spends 40 minutes overthinking a single important text reply, and 73% have abandoned a draft message without sending it.
MAYA LAB | Shutterstock
The best way to get over someone taking quite a long time to respond to a text, especially if they're experiencing any of those psychological struggles, according to psychologist Loren Soeiro, is to just remind yourself that there are plenty of alternative explanations for a text delay, and that the outcome you most fear is generally not the most likely.
As for people who are struggling to send the text, it might help to start by sending quick, low-effort responses to keep the conversation moving, rather than overthinking every word. Or maybe just say you prefer in-person communication or even talking on the phone.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
