The Text Messages That Keep Me Awake at Night

Some client messages are perfectly normal. "Can we book Thursday at 7pm?" or "Running five minutes late, sorry."

Others are weird in ways that stick with you.

Like the guy who texted at 2am: "Are you awake? I can't sleep and keep thinking about you."

Or the client who sends photos of gifts he bought me but never gives me. Just pictures of jewelry in store displays with messages like "saw this and thought of you."

The married clients are the worst for late-night emotional texts. Long messages about how unhappy they are at home. How our appointments are the only time they feel alive.

"You're the only person who really understands me," one regular writes every few weeks.

These messages make me feel guilty and trapped. I'm not their therapist or girlfriend. But they're pouring their hearts out to me at midnight.

Sometimes I get suicide threats. Clients saying they'll hurt themselves if I stop seeing them or don't respond to messages immediately.

Those texts terrify me. What if someone actually hurts themselves because I maintained professional boundaries?

But I learned from my therapist that clients using suicide threats to manipulate NYC escort providers is actually common. Part of boundary testing.

Still keeps me awake wondering if I should call someone or if that would make things worse.

The obsessive clients send multiple messages per day. Play-by-play accounts of their daily activities. Photos of everything they eat. Updates about escort work meetings I don't care about.

Blocking numbers helps but determined clients just get new phones.

The scariest messages reference things about my personal life they shouldn't know. Details about my school, family, or regular activities.

"Saw you at Starbucks on Tuesday. You looked tired. Are you taking care of yourself?"

How did they know I was there? Are they following me?

Those messages make me want to change my whole routine and hide from the world.

Sometimes I turn off my work phone at night just to get peace from the constant stream of client neediness.

But then I worry about missing legitimate booking requests or emergency situations.

The emotional labor of managing client feelings through text messages is exhausting in ways I didn't expect when I started this work.

Most clients text appropriately. But the problematic ones create enough stress to affect my sleep and mental health.

Setting boundaries about communication frequency and content helps. But enforcing those boundaries is ongoing work.