The imagination can be very easily stimulated while texting someone you are attracted to.

Since the communication is over text, your mind expands on what you are reading.

A simple phrase could be interpreted as much more than what it was intended to mean.

Receiving the smallest compliment, such as one complimenting a new hairstyle, is quickly interpreted as a strong sign of romantic interest on his part.

The next thing you know, you are thinking about the text message and imagining yourself dating him.

A simple phrase, word, or emoji is interpreted in a manner that convinces you he really likes you.

As time goes on, the text conversations become more personal.

There are text conversations about where you grew up, your favorite hobby, an embarrassment from your childhood, what it was like to go on your first trip out of the country, etc.

He responds enthusiastically, with words, memes, and emojis that make you feel like he is sincerely excited about getting to know you.

These text message conversations are happening over the course of weeks and months.

Unbeknownst to you, an emotional dependency is brimming under the surface within you.

Your day isn’t quite the same unless you have had text message exchanges with him.

By this point, he is probably the last person you are texting before you go to sleep at night and the first person you are texting when you wake up in the morning.

Throughout the day, whether you are at work, with friends, at the gym, at a dentist appointment, at a laundromat, hanging out with friends, walking your dog, or at a carwash, you are exchanging text messages with him.

Meanwhile, your mind is becoming addicted to this kind of attention.

In fact, if you haven’t received a text message from him for longer than you are used to on any given day, it affects your mood.

You aren’t happy.

Regardless of what pastime you are participating in with friends or family, you aren’t fully present to it.

You keep looking at your smartphone waiting for the usual text messages you receive from him.

When it finally arrives, your mood soars.

You are elated.

There is a rush of dopamine that puts you in a much better mood than you were just a moment ago while you were worried about why you hadn’t heard from him yet.

Any text messages you receive from him that has anything to do with the opposite sex negatively affects your mood.

It doesn’t matter that all he did was make a quick comment about a girl he works with that had nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with work.

You are still jealous.

The emotional attachment and dependency are constant sentiments.

Without hearing from him multiple times on a daily basis, your mood is so negatively affected, you don’t have much of an appetite and could care less about engaging in your pastimes.

At this stage, you have fallen in love with him, and it was all based on these text message conversations.