Since i got blasted with ims alot of them at once, i can no longer see anyone in the chat rooms help me?

I was in wisconsin chat1 and all of a sudden i got bombarded with tons of ims. i got them off but now when i go into a chat room, i can see the names of the chatters in the left side window, but i cant see anyone chatting. What happend to my computer can you please help me