iMessage on Desktop Not Responsive - Now takes multiple clicks to interact with

Hey Everyone, I have a really weird issue since updating to Sonoma with iMessage on my macbook pro (model 2020).

iMessage used to be extremely responsive, now it runs seemingly "slow" in the sense that instead of being responsive in 1 click, it takes 2-3 clicks to switch between contacts who I am messaging or to click into the messaging section0. Sometimes it works in 1 click, but for the most part it takes multiple clicks.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? If so what did you do to fix it?