Last Thursday, I sat in a packed parking lot on a college campus teeming with people in a city of more than 100,000. But I might as well have been alone on a leaky raft in the middle of an ocean ...

Zelana Montminy had stared at her phone for 10 minutes when a stranger asked her if she was OK. She says her phone gave her an escape from her grief.

Emotional overload, burnout, and neurodiversity all play a role in why texting back feels so hard, even with people we love.