Think aloud
When a girl ignores you but likes you, it’s very hard to know what to do next. You want to show her that you care but how can you do that when she doesn’t let you?
You saw that she liked you. All the signs were there. She contacted you first, she made an effort to see you often, and she even told you as much. She said that you were someone special and that she felt safe with you.
At what point did her feelings for you change? Have they even changed or is there something else happening behind the scenes that you’re not aware of?
It doesn’t matter whether you want something more serious with her or if you’ve been playing around, you still see that she’s not there anymore. You’re hyperaware of her absence from your life right now.
Maybe she’ll end up teaching you a valuable lesson but maybe she’s over you. Either way, you’re questioning the entire relationship you established with this woman. You’re doubting every word she said to you.
In this article, we’ll help you to figure out the reason why she’s acting this way and also what you can do to get her attention back. I mean, it shouldn’t be that hard, right?
When a girl ignores you but likes you, here’s why
This dilemma is making you nuts. She either replies with one word or she ghosts you for a while and then pretends like nothing happened.
You’re overthinking things. Your brain is screaming the question: “Why is she ignoring me if she likes me?”
You thought that there were some signs of attraction but you’re not sure anymore. She’s giving you the cold shoulder and a woman who’s genuinely interested wouldn’t do that. Or would she?
Pay attention to the signs that she’s acting this way. At the end of the day, there could be a deeper reason behind it that you haven’t even thought of.
1. She’s playing games with you
When a girl ignores you but likes you, she has to have a valid reason, and sometimes, it’s nothing more than a game. She knows that to a man, it’s a turn-off when he sees a woman who’s too interested. She may believe that you’ll like her more if she backs off a little bit to see how much you’ll chase her.
It’s also a way for her to see how interested you are in her. Almost every woman will take a few steps back to see how much you’re going to run after her.
If you choose to wait for her to make the first move, then you may lose her for good. She’s probably trying to get enough attention from you as she didn’t know what else to do.
I’m not trying to excuse her behavior or say that women have valid reasons for ignoring guys. What I am saying is that there may be a little game going on that you didn’t even realize you were a part of.
2. She’s punishing you for something
When a girl ignores you, even if you believe that she likes you, it may be because you did something that got her all riled up. You may have said something that put her into this state.
Did you call her clingy? Did you say that you didn’t like something that’s important to her?
When you say things like this, you can’t expect her to act normally. Usually, there will be one of two possible reactions and those are anger or resentment.
When she’s punishing you for saying something, she’ll simply ignore your calls and text messages. She doesn’t care whether you’re showing interest in her. She’d much rather move on without you than continue to listen to your little insults.
If you’re the one to blame in this situation, don’t think that she’s playing hard to get. She’s just trying to teach you a lesson.
She wants you to know that in real life, you can’t act this way toward a woman, especially if another woman is involved. For example, if you got flirty with someone right in front of her, she may never talk to you again.
Of course, you’re going to end up in an argument if you do or say something wrong like this!
3. She’s just busy
She previously showed you so many signs of interest, so it may not be that she’s playing mind games with you. What she is doing is taking some time for herself to get things done.
You would know this if you took a moment to listen to what she has to tell you. She’ll tell you on the very first date that she’s a busy girl who has a lot of work to do.
When she gives you a heads-up or tells you afterward that she’s been up to something related to her job, you should know that she’s not ignoring you. She’s making sure that she keeps everything under control.
If she continues using social media even though she’s not responding to your texts, then you may start to ask yourself what’s happening. But most of the time, a woman who’s busy with her own life won’t spend all of her time on her phone trying to catch a man’s attention.
4. She’s trying to protect her heart
How much do you know about this woman? Have you gotten to the point where you talk about your exes and your past traumas?
You know that out of all conversations, these are the hardest ones to have, especially with a woman who’s had so much heartbreak in her past that she’s not normally able to hold a conversation about it. A toxic relationship can bring enough heartache to a woman that she’ll completely shut down and hide her heart to protect it.
Once she starts to catch feelings for you, she’ll begin to hide from you and that’s because she knows that if she falls in love with you, it’ll only break her heart if you decide to leave. She doesn’t want to get to that point, so she’s ignoring you right now.
Her traumatic experiences are telling her that she won’t get anything positive from getting attached to you.
5. She’s insecure
When a girl ignores you but you know she likes you, it may be because of her insecurities. Whenever you make a mistake or do anything that could potentially make her mad, she’ll respond by ignoring you.
She’ll act as if she’s detached from the situation completely or she may seem aloof because showing that you hurt her would instead make her feel like you have the upper hand.
To be honest with you, she’s probably sitting at home and just waiting for you to text her again. Once you start a conversation, she’ll begin talking to you again. However, you may want to apologize if you made her mad.
Her apparent disinterest may also have nothing to do with you but more the fact that she feels like she’s not good enough so she needs you to constantly validate her.
6. She’s getting mixed signals from you
As you can see, there are many possible reasons why a girl ignores you even though she likes you and one of them could be that you’re the one sending her signals that she can’t decipher.
You may not even be aware of it. You think that you’ve done everything in your power to show her how much you’re into her.
You’re the type of guy who doesn’t like to play games, so you like to be very straightforward. However, she’s not sure whether there’s something wrong or you’re genuinely interested in her.
What she sees in your body language isn’t something that you can control. She may think she sees you pull away from her when she talks to you, which to her is a clear sign that you don’t like her.
There’s something in the way you act that makes her believe she’s in the friend zone, so she’ll ignore you, to not seem like a stupid girl who’s pining over a guy who’s not sure about her.
7. She doesn’t want to come off as too strong
A woman will start to ignore you when she feels like she’s trying too hard while you’re not doing enough. She’ll start to wonder how much she needs to tone down to get your attention again.
Sometimes, when a woman gets carried away, she remembers that she doesn’t want to come off as too strong. That’s when she’ll start to text you less and talk to you less, and she won’t go out with you as often.
She feels like she’s too much because of previous experiences and she doesn’t want to be a girl who gives too much of herself away, which is why she tries so hard to ignore you. Otherwise, she’s scared that you’ll think of her as too much and that you won’t be interested in her anymore.
8. She got bored
When a girl ignores you, even though you thought she liked you, you’re left wondering whether she really does like you or if it was a fleeting emotion.
Well, I can tell you with certainty that you may not be as interesting to her anymore, especially if she’s been distancing herself from you slowly and you haven’t done anything to catch her attention again.
You’ll know that you’re boring to her once she starts to seem faraway when she’s with you. She doesn’t involve herself in conversations and she doesn’t want to ask any questions about the stories you tell her.
She’s started to dissociate more when you’re around her and she doesn’t think that she needs to talk about herself either. Now that’s a woman who’s given up on you and the possibility of having anything more serious with you.
If that doesn’t tell you that you should probably give up on her, then I don’t know what will (except her continuing to ignore you). I mean, she doesn’t even maintain eye contact anymore without sighing out of boredom.
She could’ve at least made things a little easier for both of you, by telling you this rather than ignoring you.
9. She likes someone else more
When a girl ignores you, it’s doesn’t have to mean that she doesn’t like you but it could mean that she likes someone else just a little bit more. It’s heartbreaking, I know, but it happens.
Do you know whether she’s been talking to someone else while talking to you too? Has she ever told you about some guy she’s been seeing? If you know that there may be someone else in her life, then this is a possible reason for her not contacting you anymore.
Why would you even want her to text you in the first place if this is the case? If she’s so occupied with another guy, then there’s nothing you can do to make her more interested in you.
You’ll be so much happier without a woman who’s uncertain about you in your life. You should be able to find your happiness in the arms of someone who’s going to do everything in their power to show you just how special and important you are.
What you can do when a girl ignores you but likes you
Now that we’ve figured out some of the plausible reasons why she’s acting the way she is, you may want to think about your next move. You need to do something about this to get closure.
Yes, you could easily get closure by yourself but you could instead find a way to settle things with her. I mean, what if in your case, it’s none of the things on the list above? What if it’s something completely different that we’ve never even thought of?
You should take action. Figure out what you need to do to make her stop ignoring you. When a woman who likes you also ignores you, you may need to use the ace up your sleeve.
1. Try talking to her about it
When a girl likes you but still ignores you, you can try talking to her about it. You may think that I’m crazy for telling you to speak to a girl who’s ignoring you, as how are you even going to get to her if she’s trying to get away from you?
Well, first of all, she’s getting your messages and she’s reading them even if she isn’t replying. So for that reason in itself, you can text her something that’s going to reflect your current feelings. Type out all the things that you’re experiencing right now and ask her to give you an explanation for her behavior.
Note: Even though you feel the need to talk to her, she may need a little more time to process everything. However, this doesn’t mean that you should put aside all of your own emotions because you want to make her feel understood.
2. Don’t push her into a relationship
She likes you. You’re so adamant about this and you may have even had this conversation with her multiple times. She probably knows that you like her too but she seems so guarded.
Well, I can tell you for sure that a girl who ignores you even when she likes you may simply be scared. She’s so afraid to go through heartache again that she’d much rather hide and ignore you than talk to you about it.
She doesn’t want a relationship because she feels like you’re going to leave like all those other men who thought that she was replaceable.
This woman has been through enough so don’t try to push her into a relationship. Cut her some slack. Show her that you won’t just run away the moment things get tough but also give her the space she needs.
That’s when she’ll know that she can take her time getting to know you and he’ll know that she’ll be able to start something more serious with you.
3. Create boundaries
I know that you may want to give her all the space in this world but you also need to create clear boundaries. You need to protect yourself properly, so once she starts to ignore you, she’ll also see that she can’t play games with you.
If she wants to talk to you when she needs you but she’s not there for you when you need her, that’s not okay because it turns into a one-sided relationship.
So, once you start to create your boundaries, you’ll also begin to see that self-respect is extremely important. She won’t respect you or your time if you don’t respect yourself first and foremost. You need to show her that you won’t just sit around and wait for her to make up her mind.
Set your boundaries and tell her that you need to have proper communication or it won’t turn into a relationship at all. Tell her that this isn’t negotiable.
Let her know that if she ignores you each time something happens or if she gives you the cold shoulder whenever she feels like it, then it won’t last long at all.
4. Avoid apologizing before you know what’s actually the matter
I’ve been in this situation far too many times – when someone started to avoid me or ignore me and then I got so anxious that I began to apologize right away.
After a while, I asked myself why. Why did I apologize for things that I didn’t even do wrong? And at the same time, if there was something wrong, why didn’t the other person have enough respect for me to tell me about it?
That’s exactly why you can’t apologize to her right away. You’ll be saying sorry for things that aren’t your fault or for bothering her and so on. Do you need to do that at this point?
At the same time, a person has the right to get angry and take some time off but she should go to you and tell you what you did wrong first.
5. Don’t start flirting with other women
Even if she’s ignoring you right now, it’s clear that this girl still likes you. She may simply be going through a tough time or she may be sad for whatever reason.
Currently, it’s anything but smart for you to start flirting with other women. You may want to make her jealous so she knows that she can’t play games with you but she’ll only see that as confirmation that you’re not worthy of her.
She’ll assume that you don’t like her as much as she thought you did, so she’ll move on. You don’t want to see her flirting with other men, now do you? So don’t be a douche who flirts with other women just because she’s not available.
This is the time when you should be on your best behavior. This is your chance to show her that you’re a good guy and that she can trust you and count on you.
6. Don’t change your behavior
Now that things are a little bit different, you may be very tempted to change your behavior. When a girl ignores you but seems to like you, you may want to show her that you can play this game too and this is when you’ll start to experiment with things that may or may not influence this situation.
One day, you’ll want to text her constantly even if you’ve never done so before. You’ll want to show her that she’s the most important person in your life, even if she was nothing close to it before.
You may instead feel the need to ignore her too. If she starts texting you, you’ll want to play this cat and mouse game as well but you shouldn’t do that.
Don’t change your authentic self because of a girl who’s not sure about what she wants. You need to show her that you’re there for her but that you also value your own time.
You’re not going to be happy in this relationship if you pretend to be someone you’re not. If she likes the real you, she’ll go back to that guy.
If you choose to pretend to be someone else then she’ll continue with her behavior and she’ll just be confused about why she ever fell for you in the first place.
