Episode 29: Unmasking Rejection: Answering Questions About RSD
Nov 24, 2023
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Dr. Megan Anna Neff, a mental health professional specializing in AuDHD, joins Patrick Casale to dive deep into rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD). They explore how RSD is masked and its profound effects on shame and connection. The conversation also highlights the links between RSD, PMDD, and different perspectives from ADHD and autistic individuals. Plus, they share practical strategies for managing RSD to foster a nurturing environment and emphasize the importance of understanding core needs to break the cycle of shame.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) can lead to destructive shame and negative coping strategies, highlighting the importance of addressing these issues openly with trusted connections.
Understanding how RSD manifests may differ between neurodivergent individuals allows for better management of emotional responses and improved connection with others.
Deep dives
Neurodivergent Affirming Counseling Services
A counseling practice called Resilient Mind Counseling specializes in providing therapy and medication management for neurodivergent individuals, particularly those who are autistic or have ADHD. The practice emphasizes a neuroinclusive healthcare community and serves clients from all over North Carolina, though medication management services require clients to be within a specific driving distance from the office. By accepting various insurance plans and offering self-pay options, they aim to make mental health services accessible. The clinicians themselves are often neurodivergent, enhancing their understanding and support for clients navigating similar experiences.
The Role of Authentic Promotion for Neurodivergent Business Owners
The podcast highlights the unique challenges neurodivergent business owners face in promoting their services authentically. It emphasizes the importance of creating genuine connections with clients, rather than using traditional marketing tactics that may not resonate with the neurodivergent audience. To facilitate this, the podcast is now open for sponsorships specifically geared toward neurodivergent business owners, offering discounts to support their exposure in an authentic manner. This initiative underlines the podcast hosts' commitment to fostering a community where authenticity is paramount.
Understanding Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)
The discussion delves into the complexities of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), especially among neurodivergent individuals, and its connection to emotional responses like fight, flight, fawn, or freeze. The hosts describe how highly masked RSD can manifest in behaviors like people-pleasing or perfectionism, which may lead to negative coping strategies such as substance use or self-harm. They underscore the internalized nature of RSD, where emotional outbursts might be replaced by silent suffering and ruminative thoughts. The conversation stresses the importance of recognizing these behavioral patterns to better understand and manage the experiences linked to RSD.
The Impact of Shame on Emotional Wellbeing
A significant theme of the podcast is the destructive nature of shame and its close ties to Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and mental health struggles. The hosts explain how internalized shame can create harsh inner critics that reinforce feelings of unworthiness and drive individuals toward negative coping mechanisms. They emphasize that shame is not simply guilt over actions but rather an intrinsic belief of being a 'bad' person, providing a backdrop for emotional turmoil. The dialogue suggests that addressing shame openly with trusted connections can be a powerful step in counteracting the pain it causes.
Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) impacts many aspects of your life and can be a driving force in how you manage relationships and internally process the world around you, so there are many nuances for it.
In this episode, Patrick Casale and Dr. Megan Anna Neff, two AuDHD mental health professionals, answer some of the questions from listeners about RSD, including everything from self-shaming to the connection with other diagnoses.
Top 3 reasons to listen to the entire episode:
Understand what masked RSD looks like and the impact it has on shame and finding connection.
Identify what connections and impact RSD might have on conditions like PMDD, as well as how the experience of rejection can be viewed differently between ADHD and Autistic individuals.
Learn some strategies to help deal with the experience of RSD to create a better environment around you and pay attention to your core needs.
When it comes to RSD, everything goes back to connection. It’s both the thing that humans need and also something that can seem so difficult to attain and maintain. If you are struggling with complex and shifting intrusive narratives or internalized emotions that can last for years, try to focus on your core needs at the moment and check in with yourself so that you can offer yourself the opportunity to think more objectively and take action that is more likely to benefit you.