Rejection sensitivity, decoded.
Plain-language writing on RSD, the ADHD brain, and the skills that actually help mid-spiral. Written by a human, edited on bad days.
The signs
Do I have RSD? The honest signs, without a fake quiz
No validated test exists, and anyone selling you a score is selling. The real pattern: speed, certainty, disproportion, and what to do if it fits.
Read it →The trigger map
The RSD trigger list: know your detonators
Vague messages, silence, short replies, cancellations, exclusion, feedback, flat moods. What each usually means and the defusal for every one.
Read it →The comparison
RSD vs. BPD: same pain, different pattern
The most confused comparison in adult mental health: episodic vs. pervasive, criticism vs. abandonment, and why the label changes the treatment.
Read it →What helps
How to deal with RSD: the honest map of what works
The 90-second skill, the therapy that builds it permanently, treating the ADHD underneath, and the structural changes that actually move the needle.
Read it →The anatomy
Anatomy of an RSD episode: the arc, the duration, the exits
Trigger, wave, verdict, prosecution, subsidence. How long episodes really last and exactly where each one can be interrupted.
Read it →The medication question
Is there medication for RSD? The honest answer
Nothing is approved, evidence is thin, and treating the ADHD itself often helps most. How to have the real conversation with a prescriber.
Read it →At work
RSD at work: a survival protocol
Vague emails from people with power, redlined drafts, reviews, and the meeting that went quiet. Protocols for each, including the one-hour rule.
Read it →Dating
Dating with RSD: surviving the most ambiguous game there is
Slowed replies, transcript forensics, armor vs. flooding, and why a fade is a matching verdict, never a worth verdict.
Read it →Relationships
RSD in relationships: a guide for both people
What the spiraling partner can own, what the other partner can do, and the calm-weather agreements that survive loud moments.
Read it →Field guide
Left on read: why silence feels like a verdict
Read receipts convert ambiguity into fake evidence. What the silence usually means and the 90-second fix.
Read it →Field guide
The "k." decoder: what short replies actually mean
Message length tracks battery, not love. Why punctuation is not a mood, and the one sentence that fixes this forever.
Read it →Beyond ADHD
Can you have RSD without ADHD?
Yes. Where intense rejection sensitivity shows up outside ADHD, why the ADHD version got the famous name, and why the skills work regardless.
Read it →Field guide
Why "we need to talk" feels like a verdict
Four words, sixty hours of dread. What your brain is doing with a vague message, and the 90-second structure for getting out.
Read it →RSD, explained
What is rejection sensitive dysphoria?
The speed, the certainty, the disproportion: what RSD feels like from the inside, why ADHD brains do it, and what helps.
Read it →The method
Check the Facts: the DBT skill behind the decoder
Audit the interpretation, never the feeling. The skill the whole tool is built on, and exactly how each decode uses it.
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