iPhone emojis sending immediately instead of being inserted

I did do a search but if it's been addressed I couldn't figure out the right search term.

It's been at least a month since this issue started, I don't recall it being near an update but that would make sense if it was. I have an iPhone 13XR and the software is up to date (18.2.1 at the time of this post).

I use a fair number of emojis in my texts and FB messages and, for some reason, SOME of them are now "sending themselves" automatically instead of just inserting them into my text. 🤦‍♀️

That facepalm emoji, for example, might be sent as a standalone extra-large image with ZERO CONTEXT. The recipient just receives a random emoji and starts responding when I'm still composing my overall message.

I could easily adapt to an "all or nothing" scenario, where ALL emojis are handled the same way (sent immediately OR imbedded in text as in all previous history), but this seems completely random and all the emojis on my keyboard look the same - there's no checkmark or other indication to say "this one will be sent on its own, you can't use it in a sentence/paragraph."

Am I the only one with this issue? And, more importantly, how do I fix it??

Thanks in advance!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]