Continual 'Game is paused' notice along with laggy gameplay

I'm experiencing a lot of what I assume is lag. The game will keep stuttering and the 'Game is paused' window pops up. It was so bad last night I quit playing. I logged on early this morning and the game ran fine in Clearfell all the way to The Grim Tangle. Now it's doing it again. Here are the things I've tried

1. Checked and reset my Internet connection (even though other online games run fine)

2. switched Gateway from Auto to California (I'm in Colorado).

3. tried resetting to a different instance.

I don't know if this is traffic issues with too many other players in the same or nearby areas or your Servers are struggling but it's very frustrating and makes the game unplayable.

Thank you

andremal
PS5 player