> handle rejection poorly
Off-topic but recently I found out about Sensitive Rejection Dysphoria, its not officially recognized as a thing but it is in active study now, and very related to ADHD, and tbh I wish I knew about it sooner
Off-topic but recently I found out about Sensitive Rejection Dysphoria, its not officially recognized as a thing but it is in active study now, and very related to ADHD, and tbh I wish I knew about it sooner
Before I had my ADHD diagnosis, I just assumed that I have social anxiety and tried to fix it myself by giving me exposure therapy. I would force myself to seek out any social interaction regardless on how I felt.
The result was that I got worse, so much worse because I was basically trained myself to disregard my emotions. Turns out being undiagnosed with ADHD is traumatizing. I did not imagine that people hated me for being different, I never had any phobia. It wasn't "just in my head". The truth is that I am different and lots of people will instinctively hate me for being neurodivergent. I just needed to learn to deal with that.
That is why a correct diagnosis is so important. I despise that people are given generic diagnosis like depression or anxiety instead of digging deeper and trying to find out what actually causes them.
I guess it's like ADHD in that way: I thought I was just a lazy sack of shit until I found out I have a condition that I can treat with a pill. Then I could merely accept that it's not something I have control over, and I could move on.
Funnily enough no matter how great my life is nor how confident I feel, every once in a while a catastrophic fear of rejection will leap into my chest and I suddenly feel like I'm that poor terrified 15-year-old me, and I have to shake it off. I have much better tools for dealing with it now that I don't see it as part of my identity, much like I don't see myself as lazy.
Turns out I had AuDHD and I was masking (pretending to be neurotypical when around people). Can't tell you how exhausting that is. I cut off all my friends and couldn't be happier since.
Some people are simply not wired to socialize.
It doesn't seem to be particularly exclusive to ADHD; to me it sounds like it's just anxiety.
Note that the guy who made it up advocates a specific medication regime for it that you probably aren't taking.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/08/14/ssc-survey-results-adh...
I found the adhd chatter podcast very helpful
https://youtube.com/@adhd_chatter_podcast?si=Ne0isYQ2QCgIeqY...
"THIS COMMON MEDICATION IS DANGEROUS FOR ADHD WOMEN!" & "THIS STRANGE HABIT IN PREGNANCY INCREASES THE RISK OF ADHD!" are just two examples.
I'm sure it's a good podcast but I find this practice distasteful at best and absolutely abhorrent when you're directly targeting mental health patients with poor impulse control and self-regulation issues.
(I want to emphasize that I know you mean well :-) )