5 Weird Texting Habits of Narcissists -

A narcissist has to stay in control of the situation and keep getting supplies from you at all times, especially when you are not in their physical presence. They have to influence you to keep you under their thumb. One of the easiest and best ways to do so is via text. When they can’t control you directly, they control you through their weird texting habits.

1. Texting non-stop and demanding constant attention.

Narcissists don’t respect your boundaries, including your time and activities. They always want your attention and act like they own you. If you focus on something else, they see it as betrayal. This can lead to constant texting and intense conversations, making you feel anxious and desperate for their approval. They trap you in a cycle where you rely on their attention, but when they get bored, they suddenly pull away. This leaves you feeling confused, stressed, and emotionally overwhelmed. Their texting patterns mess with your emotions, making you feel ignored and craving their attention even more.

A Book: Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men.

2. Making you feel ignored by not responding.

Narcissists are always on their phones, talking to others or seeking attention elsewhere, while treating you like you don’t exist. They might be online at the same time as you but won’t respond when you’re waiting for a reply. This makes you feel ignored, and that feeling can crush your self-worth.

When a narcissist does this, they’re showing you that they don’t value you as much as you value them. They don’t care about you or your presence. They don’t see you as someone important—they only wanted to trap your attention. Once they know they have you, they stop putting in effort because they believe you won’t leave.

This is their way of making you feel unworthy so that you’ll beg for their attention. You start questioning yourself: What did I do wrong? What did I say that made them ignore me? Should I change something about myself to make them act like they did at the start of the relationship? This kind of thinking happens when they devalue you, leaving you trapped in self-doubt and confusion.

3. Exploitative s£xting.

S£xting is another behavior—the texting behavior of a narcissist. Now, there is nothing wrong with s£xting, but when it comes to a narcissist, their texting is all about s£xting, especially quite early in the relationship, just right after the initial contact. They send provocative images and expect you to send the same without caring about how you feel or knowing if you want to do this or not. They just somehow want to jump in and open your clothes by a text; that’s what’s going on, and that is what they do.

That is one of the ways they degrade you because you may participate in the s£xting, you may share stuff, but later, when they start devaluing you—when they start putting you down, when they start degrading you—you start feeling embarrassed. You feel a lot of shame, and you start berating yourself for participating in the early s£xting, not being able to see it for what it was, and so on.

But you need to know that it is one of their addictive behaviors that prey on people for the same very purpose. They have these other people in line, and they just go to them alternatively and ask for nµdes, ask for pictures, provocative pictures, and all of that stuff. Once they get them, they use this person and the pictures and then forget about this person forever or temporarily until they need them again and come back.

4. Rare heartfelt conversations.

Sometimes, a narcissist will text you with a fun, witty, and heartfelt conversation that makes you feel truly connected and seen. This often happens during the devaluation stage, like a small reward. They might be in a good mood, want something from you, or are trying to stop you from leaving. There’s always a hidden motive, even if you can’t see it.

These conversations feel special and meaningful, but they aren’t genuine. Once they get what they want, this kind of connection usually disappears. It might never happen again, or it happens much later when they need something and know it won’t come easily.

This behavior strengthens the trauma bond. You keep coming back, craving the same connection you felt during that one special moment. It creates confusion, making you think, Maybe they aren’t so bad. Maybe they really care. But the truth is, it’s never about you—it’s always about how they feel and what they want. Once they’ve gotten what they needed, they move on, leaving you longing for something they never truly meant to give.

5. They leave you hanging.

They leave you hanging by hooking you with a small text without interest or content. For example, they might send a text early in the morning at 9:00 a.m. saying, “Good morning,” but then when you respond instantly, they leave you hanging there. It’s like them pressing a button in you, eliciting a reaction, seeing that you are still there, and then running away, taking some kind of sadistic pleasure from seeing you suffer from wanting to have that conversation.

This mind game of back-and-forth pushing and pulling drives a person crazy because you do not know how to respond to this kind of behavior. You do not know where you are; you don’t know what your status is; you don’t know where you stand in this relationship. You don’t know what’s happening because it’s confusing.

They would ignore you, and if you ignored them back, then they would come in and drop this little text: “Hi,” “Hello,” “Good morning,” whatever. You respond, and you think maybe now they have realized, and then they drop you like a hot potato. It is the same pattern again. It keeps happening over and over again until you just feel like you have turned into a shell of yourself.