Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is a phenomenon that can affect neurodivergent people. It is something that most people don’t know about and the signs can often be mistook for some mental illnesses. While everyone experiences unpleasant feelings when met with rejections or failure, people with RSD feel these unpleasant emotions at a more extreme level than those without it. RSD can lead to anxiety, depression, and decreased self esteem.
People who experience RSD can perceive rejection when it might not actually be there. For example, maybe your coworker doesn’t say hi to you one day when you come into work. This might be perceived as rejection from someone, while maybe your coworker is just having an off day. This perceived rejection can invoke extraordinarily strong unpleasant feelings that are difficult to describe for the person with RSD. People with RSD describe the feeling as intense dread, or a ping in the gut that is overwhelming.
RSD can look like mood disorders because someone might be feeling fine one moment and then perceive rejection from someone and then feel horrible the next moment. this can be mistaken as a rapid cycling mood disorder. It is important to talk with your provider if you feel you might have RSD or have been misdiagnosed.
People with RSD often have social anxiety because of the constant fear of any form of rejection. This can lead into a vicious cycle of RSD causing social anxiety to the social anxiety causing behaviors that lead to rejection, back to causing more anxiety. Treatments to manage RSD can be helpful such as individual therapy and sometimes medication to manage the anxiety. Talk to a medical provider to ask about treatment options.
Educating others about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria can be immensely helpful to raise awareness and acceptance for people who experience it. There is often a stigma in our society about people who are “not able to take criticism”, which can lead to people getting upset towards people who have RSD. This then furthers the feeling of rejection for that person, making it worse. It is important to know while treatments are available, people cannot control if they have RSD. Because RSD is not a well-known phenomenon, people might be experiencing it without knowing there is an explanation for what they are going though. This is another reason education about RSD is important.
If you experience RSD, we encourage you to talk to people around you about it. Let them know what you are going through and advocate for yourself to get whatever accommodations you may need. Some examples for accommodations would be to have your boss write down any criticism that may need to be given, as writing can be easier to process than face-to-face interactions for some people. Also, making it clear to others that if there is something that needs to be talked about, the subject be given to the person at the request for a talk. This would look like saying “Hey, can we talk about your tardiness later?” instead of giving a generic “We need to talk” message. This helps the person expect what the topic is about which prevents some anxiety around them wondering what the topic is about, often reaching a worse-case-scenario in their head. Life accommodations can look like whatever is most helpful for you to manage RSD.
Do you experience RSD? We’d love to hear your experience with it, whether personal, or second-hand. Do you have any accommodation ideas for those who have Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria? Comment below.