Rejection sensitivity dysphoria is the hardest part of ADHD

1. APAlex Partridge0:00

   Rejection sensitivity dysphoria is the hardest part of ADHD, and let me tell you a story that demonstrates why. I was recently talking to a lady, and I've changed her name. Let's call her Bethany. And she told me that she had been sober for seven years. But last weekend she relapsed. She picked up a drink. And Bethany told me that the reason she picked up a drink was because of this. She was sat in the office. It was a Friday afternoon, about four o'clock, ready to clock off for the weekend, and her email pinged, and it was her boss. And her boss said, "Bethany, have a lovely weekend. Can we have a chat Monday morning?" That was it. She instantly filled with dread, and she said she had thoughts of, "They finally found out I'm useless. I'm definitely gonna get fired. They all simply tolerate me and hate me." Her mind filled with catastrophic thoughts. And on the way home, she picked up two bottles of wine, got absolutely drunk. She drank again Saturday evening. On Sunday, she didn't sleep. She went into work Monday morning shaking, sat down in her boss's office, and they said, "Bethany, we'd like to offer you a promotion." And she said, "Are you sure?" And they said, "Yes." In the absence of clarity and context, rejection sensitivity dysphoria will assume the worst case scenario. The downward spirals are instant, they're catastrophic, and they're super fast, and they're enough to make somebody derail seven years of sobriety.

Episode duration: 1:27