UNTREATABLE.COM
Patient sent a text two hours ago. The read receipt arrived 14 minutes ago. No reply. Patient has now checked the conversation 31 times. Has composed, deleted, and recomposed a follow-up. Has convinced themselves of: a friendship ending, a medical emergency, and a romantic rejection — in that order. The recipient is, at this moment, in line at Chipotle.
Chronic. Each read-without-reply triggers the loop.
None. Turning off read receipts has been rejected as 'too much.'
Patients with Terminal Leave-Me-On-Read Anxiety typically present with some or all of the following:
Patients diagnosed with Terminal Leave-Me-On-Read Anxiety present with a cluster of recognizable behaviors we have, on reflection, decided to name. The condition is fictional. The behaviors, unfortunately, are not. Someone in your life is showing at least two of them right now.
The Institute's taxonomic entry lists it as Horror telephonicus silentiosus, a binomial coined in-house and used nowhere in the peer-reviewed literature.
Think you have it? Find out what else you might be suffering from at the diagnosis generator. Or browse the full index of afflictions.