This is an IHeart podcast.

If you ever have feelings that you just want some,

Amy and Kat got you covered like an umbrella.

Ladies and fellas, we just follow in the spirit where it tells us.

From the real stuff to the chill stuff and the in between.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just out and feel things.

This is Feeling Things with Amy and Kat.

Happy Thursday.

Welcome to Couch Talks, the Q&A episode for our Feeling Things podcast. I'm Amy.

And I'm Kat. And quick disclaimer before we get into today's question, although we're answering

your questions, this does not serve as actual therapy. No, it does not. But we hope it helps.

We have an email from a listener, Amber, and she said, Hey, Amy and Kat, I'd love your take on something

that's been messing with my head lately. One of my closest friends and I have always been

great about texting back and forth. Lately, though, she takes hours, sometimes days to reply,

and I catch myself feeling hurt or wondering if I did something wrong. I know she's busy with work

and her kids, but I can't seem

to shake the thought that her slower responses means she doesn't value our friendship as much

anymore. Part of me feels silly for caring, but the other part worries that I might be missing

some unspoken tension. How do I stop taking this so personally? And how does one tell if a friend's new texting pattern is about

you know, you or life just being life? I actually had this exact conversation with a friend about two

weeks ago. And I didn't think of it until I was reading the email. And I was like, oh, I was feeling like,

what the heck happened to this friendship? It's kind of weird. Like, it's been so distant and it's just weird. Like, the texting is off and there's long gaps. And I was feeling insecure about it. And then come to find out there's a really big reason why. And I didn't know the reason. It all made sense. And I sort of had this exhale. And I went ahead and owned up to that person. I was like,

...