When someone blocks you on social media but keeps your number open, it can feel personal and confusing at the same time. Like you were erased publicly but left on standby privately. This pattern is not about mixed signals. It is about unfinished emotional business and the way some people avoid closure while still wanting control, and it reveals more about their internal conflict than their feelings for you.
The confusion is the point
When this happens, your mind immediately starts searching for meaning. Maybe they are angry but not done. Maybe they want space but still care. Maybe this is temporary. Maybe this is kindness.
That confusion is not accidental.
Being blocked in one place and left open in another creates uncertainty. And uncertainty keeps you emotionally engaged. Your brain keeps checking, interpreting, replaying. You are not overthinking. You are responding to an unresolved signal.
This pattern works because it keeps you suspended between rejection and access. Not fully shut out. Not fully let in.
Distance without finality
Blocking you on Instagram removes visibility. It stops them from seeing your face, your life, your reminders. It gives immediate relief from emotional stimulation. Social media is loud, visual, public. Blocking there is about reducing impact.
WhatsApp is different. It is quiet. Private. Controlled.
Keeping that channel open allows them to avoid the emotional weight of finality. Blocking your number would feel decisive. Permanent. It would force them to accept that something is truly over.
So they choose distance without finality.
This is not strategy in a calculated sense. It is emotional self-preservation. A compromise between wanting relief and fearing closure.
Relief for them, limbo for you
This is where the imbalance happens.
For them, selective blocking calms anxiety. They stop being triggered. They stop seeing what they are not ready to process. They get emotional quiet.
For you, it creates limbo.
Public rejection mixed with private access keeps your nervous system alert. You wonder if you are allowed to reach out. You wonder if silence means something. You wonder if the door is still open or just unlocked for their comfort.
This is why it hurts more than being blocked everywhere.
At least full blocking gives clarity.
Partial blocking gives questions.
What this pattern actually reveals
This behavior is not about sending you a message. It is about managing their internal conflict.
People do this when they want emotional distance but are not ready to release control. When they want peace without accountability. When they want separation without fully facing what that separation means.
Often this shows up after a breakup and you can explore that stage here:
It is closely linked to avoidant attachment and emotional avoidance. Blocking selectively allows them to regulate discomfort without doing the harder work of emotional closure.
Here is the part that matters most.
Keeping your number unblocked does not mean they want to talk.
It does not mean they are protecting you.
It does not mean they are planning to come back.
It means they are protecting themselves from emotional overwhelm while keeping access on their terms.
This pattern says very little about your worth. It says a lot about how they handle discomfort.
Where your clarity begins
If you find yourself checking whether you are still blocked or not, that is not weakness. That is your system reacting to uncertainty. Your brain wants resolution, not crumbs.
This is why boundaries like no contact exist, not as punishment, but as regulation. You can understand that better.
Clarity does not come from decoding their behavior.
It comes from deciding that partial access is not enough for your peace.
You do not need to wait for them to make a clean move.
You are allowed to choose one yourself.
If you want a grounded space to step out of the guessing game and back into yourself, a free breakup app can help you regain emotional footing.
If this pattern feels familiar, take a quiet moment inside Let It Go. It gives you space to settle your thoughts, detach gently, and stop reading silence as a message. Sometimes the clearest boundary is the one you choose for yourself.
Let it Go 
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