Messages App keeps freezing on Mac Mini after Tahoe 26.0 update

Since updating my new mac mini to Tahoe 26.0, which is just 5 months old, the messages app keeps giving me the beach ball and becomes unresponsive. I've rebooted multiple times. It shouldn't be a memory issue b/c I have 32GB and 2TB of storage. Everything else on the mac mini working fine but messages is unusable.

Any ideas?

I use it for work so this is a major issue for me.