Yes, I like the term “shame cycle” because I think our email relationship was becoming more and more about that. Often whatever he said wasn’t enough and I was upset that he wouldn’t respond on weekends. I keep thinking that if I had something important enough or interesting enough to say, then he’d respond on a weekend and that whole process was getting exhausting and disempowering. It’s great that you can put “do not reply” and be satisfied by that. I tried that, but still felt secretly hurt when he wouldn’t reply.