Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) can impact how people with ADHD react in social situations because it is an intense emotional (sometimes physical) reaction to real or perceived rejection, criticism, or disapproval.
Ways RSD Shows Up for a Person with ADHD in Social Situations.
- Avoiding social situations for fear of rejection: Anticipating rejection and the emotion pain becomes overwhelming.
- Over-interpreting social signals: Reading neutral or ambiguous cues as rejections. ADHD also affects emotional regulation and the brain can quickly jump to conclusions.
Examples: A delayed text reply, someone sounding tired or a friend canceling plans.
- People Pleasing/Masking: Trying to keep other people happy.
- Over apologizing
- Agree with things we don’t want to do
- Change or hide personality traits
- Overthink what we say
- Strong emotional reaction to criticism: Mild feedback can feel deeply painful.
- Difficulty Maintaining Friendships:
- Pattern may develop: we may pull away if we think we upset someone, ending a friendship because we feel rejected or become overly attached to quickly
- Friends may not understand why we have intense feelings and reactions
- Social Burnout: Socializing and constantly looking for signs of rejection can be exhausting. We all need recovery time.
