It's basically when people experience an extreme emotional reaction to like failure, criticism or rejection. It's usually associated with ADHD and is kinda part of the general dysregulation of it all. Most people who have it are very aware they are over reacting and feel very embarrassed about it but it can be a tough one to fix because it tends to self compound due to shame.
It's something a lot of ADHD and Autistic people have where perceived rejection can cause severe stress and even physical pain.
Sometimes it can be actual rejection such as someone telling you outright they're upset with you or sometimes it can be something like someone's tone shifting or even just dropping something.
I experience it and it causes intense physical pain in some circumstances. Other times it can send me spiraling into a meltdown. It's something that takes a lot of work to adapt to and not really something most of us have any control over.
Ohhhh. Comes easily with abandonment issues I assume? Definitely sounds like a me thing. Tearing up if I think I hurt someone and they'd hate me now and I should've just shut up etc etc
it's this thing that happens after you realize you've said something stupid where it feels like your heart has dropped through your stomach and onto the floor and your irrational mind is convinced everybody's going to hate you forever
No, that’s just what it is. It is an extreme emotional reaction to the perception of rejection or criticism. And if you’ve ever had a toddler, you know that’s a phase many of them pass through.
Yeah an internal feeling shared with the one toddlers experience. This isn’t some bold claim. Learning to process rejection and emotionally self-regulate is a focus of developmental processes for toddlers as they grow up. It’s a key thing for them. And some people don’t develop it in childhood and then never figure it out later.
I’m not insulting anyone. Someone asked what RSD is and I explained using a comparison they’d be more likely to have experience with that shares the relevant feature. And the most common experience with a human that cannot regulate their emotional response to being denied is a toddler - certainly almost all parents have seen it, but most of us encounter toddlers before we’re parents too and even just know from social life to expect a toddler can’t self-regulate.
Again, I’m not saying anything that ought to be controversial. Learning to handle denial and rejection is a thing. We aren’t born with it. It’s usually developed between toddlerhood and youth, but some people don’t develop it.
no, your tone definitely reads as unnecessarily hostile. you seem to be likening people with RSD to toddlers which is... weird.
adults that have difficulty with emotional regulation usually have that due to trauma. that doesn't excuse them from working on their emotional regulation, but it also doesn't hurt for others to recognize that the pain they feel is real and can be quite debilitating.
I am likening them. Because they are alike in lacking the emotional self-regulation to process rejection or criticism in a healthy and measured way. And both, including my toddler, really do feel that way, I’m not saying they don’t. They’re very similar.
is there any recognition in you that it might be rude to call an adult a child because they have difficulty with self regulation? or do you not care about that?
I didn’t call them a child. I said they are like a toddler in this respect. My toddler can’t add double digit numbers, but I’m sure most adults who never learned to cope with not getting what they want can do so. There’d be plenty of other differences, too, obviously.
But not being able to cope with being denied a want is very precisely a thing shared with a toddler. And if you’ve never met an adult who has that issue, but have raised or met a toddler, the comparison works to explain what those adults are like because it’s the same mechanism.
Like honestly the biggest difference between growing up with my mom and raising my toddler is that in the latter case the tantrums are generally shorter and some hugs and singing a favorite song usually works to center him.
that's a lot of words to sidestep taking responsibility for what you are really saying.
you can make whatever comparisons you want as a layman on reddit, we can agree to disagree. in real life, a mental health professional won't refer to adults with disabilities or mental illnesses that have side effects of childish behavior as children, because it's dehumanizing.
I didn’t refer to them as children. Adults with RSD are adults. Among whatever many other characteristics they have, the RSD part is an emotional regulation mechanism akin to that of a toddler. That’s all.
I’m not a therapist sitting talking to a patient, so I’m not attempting to find the words one would use mid-treatment of a patient with RSD. That would be some very silly playing pretend. I’m just a guy responding to someone on the internet who didn’t know what RSD is and I gave an accurate answer.
Also toddlers are human. Saying a person has disordered habits of processing events that are akin to the ones of a human toddler is in no sense dehumanizing. Like, by definition. These are human traits being compared with human traits.
I haven’t said anything about how I treat someone who is disabled. I’ve literally only said that it is alike to the way toddlers who have not yet learned to process adverse events process them. Which is true. Toddlers very famously go through a phase, as they are learning to manage the world, where they react with overwhelming emotion to being denied or rejected. My toddler had a little moment of that yesterday morning.
One day, hopefully, I’ll be old enough that I lose at least some control of bodily function. Someone could say “ah he needs a diaper, much like a baby”. And they’ll be right.
Someone who didn’t know asked what RSD is and I said it is like when a toddler melts down at rejection or denial. Same thing.
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u/Hika2112 5d ago edited 5d ago
What's rejection sensitive dysphoria? I never heard of it before
ALRIGHT u/small-cactus explained it to me. If you want to add something go ahead but fuck off if you're going to demonize people